Monday, Jul 3, 2017
The Westminster CoOPERAtive Program, Westminster Choir College’s three-week intensive opera training program is in full swing at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton. The public is invited to attend an array of free recitals, concerts and master classes featuring talented singers and accompanists from around the world who are taking the next step in their operatic careers.
The public events include operatic aria concerts, featuring participants performing arias from familiar and not-so-well-known operas on Wednesday, July 5 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, July 7 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, July 14 at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, July 19 at 7:30 p.m., and Friday, July 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, N.J.
Students will also present intimate art song recitals on Saturday, July 8, which will focus on American Art Song and Saturday, July 15, which will focus on French melodie. On Thursday, July 20, singers will present an all-Schubert evening dedicated to the memory Westminster Choir College faculty member Lindsey Christiansen. All recitals will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Bristol Chapel.
The CoOPERAtive Program brings to Princeton some of the most influential people in the operatic field today to serve on its faculty and hold master classes. Program participants will perform in master classes with Susan Ashbaker, master coach and artistic advisor to the CoOPERAtive Program on Sunday, July 2, Joan Dornemann, Metropolitan Opera assistant conductor, on Thursday, July 6; and Kathleen Kelly, coach/conductor of opera at University of Michigan, on Monday, July 17. All master classes begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Robert L. Annis Playhouse and are free and open to the public.
CoOPERAtive alumni Brian Mextorf, baritone, and Brent Funderburk, piano, present a recital on Thursday, July 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Bristol Chapel.
Westminster will host “An Evening of Divas, Divos and Dessert” on Monday, July 10 at 7 p.m., in the Robert L. Annis Playhouse. The event will include light desserts followed by a master class with CoOPERAtive Program Director Laura Brooks Rice. Tickets are $15, and the proceeds will support the CoOPERAtive program. Tickets will be available at the door.
Westminster Choir College of Rider University is located at 101 Walnut Lane in Princeton, N.J. For more information about CoOPERAtive performances, visit www.rider.edu/arts.