Thursday, Apr 9, 2015
"O Praise The Lord" includes alumni performing some of Jubilee's hallmark works!
The Westminster Jubilee Singers will celebrate its 20th anniversary with an inspiring concert of music from the African-American tradition on Sunday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Princeton Meadow Church and Event Center in West Windsor. The program, which will be conducted by Brandon Waddles, will include performances by the current ensemble, as well as Westminster Jubilee Singers alumni and former conductor J. Donald Dumpson.
They will perform works by Adolphus Hailstork, Charles A. Tindley and Richard Smallwood, as well as arrangements of familiar spirituals. Alumni, conducted by J. Donald Dumpson, will perform a medley of favorite works Westminster Jubilee Singers have performed during the past two decades. A highlight will be both groups singing Thomas Whitfield’s Oh, How I Love Jesus, accompanied by Lawrence Allen, Hammond B-3 organ; Charles Brown, bass, and Rashawn Miller, drums.
“We want people to have a great time,” says conductor Waddles. “As I told the audience at our last concert, these seats don’t have glue on’em!”
Westminster Jubilee Singers is a very intimate ensemble composed of students who are selected by audition. It is modeled after the historically acclaimed Fisk Jubilee Singers, and its repertoire, while specialized and select, is very diverse and focuses on solo and ensemble artistic expressions from its singers. Previous seasons have included appearances at the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) in Kansas City, Kan., and Regional Conference in Baltimore, Md.; the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Eastern Regional Convention in Boston, Mass.; a performance with Denyce Graves at New York’s Apollo Theater to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Children’s Defense Fund; a joint concert entitled Living the Dream with Penn State University’s Essence of Joy ensemble as a tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and its Lincoln Center debut performing in An Evening of Choral Artistry presented by the American Choral Directors Association. The ensemble has performed at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops Orchestra, under the baton of Skitch Henderson, in a concert version of Porgy and Bess. At the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, it has presented joint concerts with the Fisk University Jubilee Singers and the legendary Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Brandon Waddles, a Detroit native, holds degrees from Morehouse College and Westminster Choir College. He is a conductor, collaborative pianist and voice coach, as well as a published composer/arranger. Mr. Waddles has has collaborated on stage and in master classes with singers Angela Brown, George Shirley, Donnie Ray Albert, Vinson Cole and Lauren Flannigan. His choral compositions and arrangements have been published with both the Evoking Sound and Westminster Choir College series, and they have been performed by choral ensembles around the country, including the Morehouse College Glee Club and the Westminster Choir. In addition to his choral compositions and arrangements, he has worked as a transcriber of classic gospel songs written by some of Detroit’s legendary gospel writers, to be added to some of the hymnal supplements published by GIA. He has served on various music ministries throughout the country, including Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, Mich.; the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga.; and Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City. In addition to his post at Westminster Choir College, Mr. Waddles currently serves as composer-in-residence at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton and as a member of the music ministry at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J.
J. Donald Dumpson is minister of music and arts at Arch Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pa., and the founding director of the Philadelphia Heritage Chorale. He was minister of music and arts at Bright Hope Baptist Church from 1985 to 2010. He was the founding conductor of the Westminster Jubilee Singers from 1994 to 2011. His upcoming collaborations include Opera Philadelphia’s world premiere of We Shall Not Be Moved, composed by violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain and directed by Bill T. Jones. He will serve as chorus master for The Philadelphia Orchestra’s world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s One Land, One River, One People, which will be conducted Yannick Nézet-Séguin in November 2015. He will serve as artistic director and conductor for A Soulful Christmas at the Kimmel Center in December 2015. His previous performances have included serving as chorus master for Kathleen Battle’s concert The Underground Railroad and the world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s Can You Hear God Crying, which was released on Naxos ArkivMusic in November 2014. Dr. Dumpson has also collaborated with Mr. Lokumbe on the premiere of his compositions, A Shepherd Among Us and God, Mississippi, and a Man Called Evers.
Admission is $20 adults and $15 for students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased at the door, through the box office at 609-921-2663 or online at www.rider.edu/arts. Princeton Meadow Church and Event Center is located at 545 Meadow Road in West Windsor.