Monday, Oct 13, 2014
Oct. 26 event will feature sample performances by students and faculty
by Anne Sears
Westminster Choir College of Rider University will host a community open house to celebrate the opening of the Marion Buckelew Cullen Center on the Westminster campus in Princeton on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014, from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
The open house will include sample performances by ensembles, students and faculty from Westminster Choir College and Westminster Conservatory, Westminster’s community music school. Visitors will also have the opportunity to learn more about musical instruments in a “Meet the Instruments” activity and to tour the new building. The Westminster Community Orchestra, conducted by Ruth Ochs, will present Prokofiev’s popular Peter and the Wolf, narrated by Lois Laverty. Westminster Opera Theatre will perform a scene from Il mondo della luna (The World on the Moon), Haydn's "science fiction opera.”
Additional performers will be the Conservatory’s Suzuki Violin Ensemble; students enrolled in the High School Honors Music Program; Choir College piano student Asher Severini; the Westminster Chinese Instrument Orchestra; the Cantus Children’s Choir, conducted by Patricia Thel, and Westminster Harmonie, a chamber music ensemble composed of Westminster Conservatory faculty and advanced students.
Honoring the philanthropist who made a $5 million bequest to Westminster Choir College, the Marion Buckelew Cullen Center is the first new building to be constructed on the Westminster Choir College campus in 39 years. It contains the Hillman Performance Hall, a 3,000-square-foot performance and rehearsal hall, named in recognition of the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, which provided a $3 million grant to support the project. In addition to the performance/rehearsal hall, the Cullen Center includes a large lobby, a green room and three flexibly configured classrooms that will accommodate a wide range of academic and choral uses.
It is located beside The Playhouse, creating a new quadrangle and courtyard that will be a primary outdoor venue for Westminster student and alumni events. Its design was inspired by the Georgian style of the four original buildings surrounding the Morgan Quadrangle. Funds from the State of New Jersey's “Building Our Future” bond program were central to the completion of the $8.5 million project, as well as pledges, gifts and grants from various sources.
The Cullen Center is a sustainable learning environment that will receive LEED, (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification. Some of the LEED components include Green Power, low emitting materials, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified wood, recycled materials, water use reduction, storm water management, and construction activity that focused on pollution prevention.
The new building includes an integrated connection to The Playhouse that provides improved audience access and amenities including a ticket booth and handicap-accessible restrooms.