Thursday, Apr 8, 2010
Westminster Williamson Voices will present a concert entitled Journey into the Sacred, on Saturday, April 17, at 8 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton.
The program will include five sacred works, including Charles Villiers Stanford’s Beati Quorum Via and David Conte’s Ave Maria. A highlight will be Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor.
Westminster Williamson Voices is composed of students at Westminster Choir College. Since its founding by conductor James Jordan in 2003, the ensemble has earned acclaim for its creative programming and collaborations with other art forms, creating new and innovative uses of the choral instrument. The most notable such performance was in 2004 at The Philadelphia Cathedral, which featured Eric Whitacre’s Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine with the Spiral Q Puppet Theater of Philadelphia.
Widely acknowledged as one of the most influential conductors in America, Dr. Jordan, through his 40 books, recordings and DVDs, has brought about far-reaching pedagogical and philosophical changes in choral music, orchestral conducting, wind conducting, piano and music education. The Choral Journal has described his writings as “visionary.” His newest book, written with Nova Thomas, Toward Center, was published in October 2009. Jordan is senior conductor at Westminster Choir College, where he conducts the Westminster Williamson Voices and Westminster Schola Cantorum and teaches undergraduate and graduate choral conducting. He also conducts Anam Cara, a professional choral ensemble.
This year he will teach in the Margaret Hillis Conducting Symposium in Chicago, the Choral Institute in Freiburg, Germany and at New England Conservatory. In addition to 30 workshops and keynotes, Jordan will conduct the Louisiana, Utah and Ohio All-State choirs, and will conduct the National Youth Choir at Carnegie Hall and the U.S. Army Soldier’s Chorus of Washington, D.C on its spring tour. This year, Jordan was also appointed as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Admission to this performance is $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. For tickets call 609-921-2663 or go to www.rider.edu/arts. Westminster Choir College of Rider University is located at 101 Walnut Lane in Princeton.