Friday, Aug 18, 2017
The Westminster Symphonic Choir will continue its tradition of performing choral/orchestral masterworks with some of the world’s leading orchestras during the 2017-2018 season.
The Choir will open its year with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rossen Milanov, in Richardson Auditorium in Princeton on Saturday, September 16 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 17 at 4 p.m. Learn more at www.princetonsymphony.org.
It will perform Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado, at Carnegie Hall on Thursday, October 12 at 8 p.m. Learn more at www.carnegiehall.org. On Sunday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m. it will perform William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, conducted by Joe Miller, in the Princeton University Chapel. They will be joined by Princeton University organist Eric Plutz. Learn more at www.rider.edu/arts.
In November the women of the Symphonic Choir will perform Gustav Holst’s The Planets with The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Cristian Macelaru. Concerts will be Thursday, November 2 at 8 p.m.; Friday, November 3 at 2 p.m.; and Saturday, November 4 at 8 p.m. in Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Learn more at www.philorch.org.
In December the ensemble will collaborate with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Andrew Manze, to present five performances of Handel’s Messiah at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. Concert will be Tuesday, December 12, 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, December 13, 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, December 14, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, December 15, 11 a.m. and Saturday, December 16, 7:30 p.m. Learn more at www.nyphil.org.
The final concerts of the season will be with The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. They will present a concert titled “Philadelphia Voices,” which will include Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the world premiere of Tod Machover’s Philadelphia Voices, a crowd-sourced commission infused with sounds and voices contributed by today's Philadelphians. MIT professor and inventor of new technology for music Tod Machover has been called “America's most wired composer.” Performances will be in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center on Thursday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 6 at 2 p.m. and Saturday, April 7 at 8 p.m. Learn more at www.philorch.org They will also perform at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday, April 10 at 8 p.m. Learn more at www.carnegiehall.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 81 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.