Monday, Apr 23, 2018
The Westminster Symphonic Choir will perform two of the world’s most well known choral masterworks with two of the world’s leading orchestras in the 2018-2019 season.
In December, the ensemble will focus on Handel’s Messiah. December 6, 8, and 9 it will perform this holiday favorite with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. It will have the opportunity to explore this oratorio with a different orchestra and conductor when it performs with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Jonathan Cohen, December 11 through 15 at Lincoln Center
Members of the choir will have a second opportunity to explore another masterwork – Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor, in the spring. March 11 through 19 it will perform with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Manfred Honek, at Lincoln Center. April 11 through 13 the ensemble will travel to Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center to perform it with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Bernard Labadie.
Plans are also being finalized to offer the Princeton community a rare opportunity to hear the Westminster Symphonic Choir perform closer to home in an opera gala featuring Westminster Choir College students and conducted by Joe Miller. Details about this event should be released over the summer.
Composed of students at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, the Westminster Symphonic Choir has recorded and performed with major orchestras under virtually every internationally acclaimed conductor of the past 84 years. Its first major collaboration was in 1934 when Leopold Stokowski brought the Philadelphia Orchestra to Princeton to perform Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Westminster Symphonic Choir in the Princeton University Chapel to celebrate the opening of the Westminster Choir College campus. Recognized as one of the world’s leading choral ensembles, the choir has sung more than 350 performances with the New York Philharmonic alone. Recent seasons have included performances of Bernstein’s Mass with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Berg's Wozzeck with the London Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen; Villa-Lobos' Choros No. 10 and Estévez’ Cantata Criolla with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Gustavo Dudamel; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim and Rouse’s Requiem with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert.
Performances with the Westminster Symphonic Choir are defining milestones in the musical lives of Westminster alumni.