Thursday, Jul 31, 2014
Performing major choral works in New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York.
by Anne Sears
The Westminster Symphonic Choir will begin its 2014-2015 season with a series of performances of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jacques Lacombe. The first concert on Friday, October 10 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark is also the gala opening night of the orchestra’s new season. Other performances are Saturday, October 11 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick and Sunday, October 12 at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. Ticket information is available on the New Jersey Symphony’s website at www.njsymphony.org.
Also in October, the ensemble will perform Gustav Mahler’s choral masterwork Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia October 30, November 1 and 2. They will also perform at Carnegie Hall in New York on Friday, October 31. Ticket information is available on The Philadelphia Orchestra’s website at www.philorch.org.
The Symphonic Choir will collaborate with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Daniele Gatti to perform Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) on Sunday, March 1 at Carnegie Hall. Learn more at www.carnegiehall.org.
In the spring the ensemble will return to Philadelphia for to perform two different choral masterworks with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Kimmel Center. April 1 and 4, they will present J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion. All concerts were sold out when the orchestra and choir performed this work in 2013, the first time in 30 years.
They will also perform Leonard Bernstein’s monumental Mass; A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers April 30 through May 3. Rarely performed due to the large forces required, this work has been described by Maestro Nézet-Séguin as calls it “the pinnacle” of the Orchestra’s requiem series. Information about all performances are on the Philadelphia Orchestra’s website at www.philorch.org.
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 78 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 Verdi's Requiem 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.