Westminster Schola Cantorum Performs in Pennsylvania and Ohio

Westminster Schola Cantorum will present three concerts in Pennsylvania and Ohio March 17 through 19.  Titled "A New Song: Passages of Life,” each concert features music that will take the audience on a journey of remembrance and reflection on life’s passages.  Performances will be in Hershey and Lewisburg, Pa. and Shaker Heights, Ohio.

The program will include choral masterworks by Maurice Duruflé, John Tavener, Benjamin Britten, Mack Wilberg, James MacMillan, Paul Mealor Louis Vierne and Norman Dello Joio.  It will also present new works by emerging composers Brandon Waddles and John Hudson.

Westminster Schola Cantorum is composed of students in their second year of study at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.  One of three curricular choirs that form the core of the Westminster experience, the ensemble prepares students for the Westminster Symphonic Choir, which performs and records with the world’s great orchestras.

Conductor James Jordan is senior conductor at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where he also teaches undergraduate and graduate choral conducting and conducts the Westminster Williamson Voices. Additionally, Dr. Jordan is founder and conductor of Anam Cara, a professional choral ensemble that has received critical acclaim for its recordings.   Recognized and praised from many quarters in the musical world as one of the nation’s pre-eminent conductors, writers and innovators in choral music, he has been described a “visionary” by The Choral Journal. His career and publications have been devoted to innovative educational changes in the choral art that have been embraced around the world. A master teacher, he is one of the country’s most prolific writers on the subjects of the philosophy of music making and choral teaching; he has authored 30 major textbooks and DVDs and is editor for several choral series. His book Evoking Sound was named a “must read” on a list of six books by The Choral Journal.