Westminster Choir College

History

1920–1932: Presbyterian beginnings to the creation of a college

In 1920 John Finley Williamson founded the Westminster Choir at the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Dayton, Ohio. In 1926, he established the Westminster Choir School. The school started with a faculty of ten, and sixty students. The graduates came to be known as Ministers of Music, a term coined by Williamson and still used today by many church music programs. The sound of the choir in its early days was heavily influenced by the work of F. Melius Christiansen and The St. Olaf Choir, however the choir quickly developed its own sound that more closely resembled English choirs.

In 1922, the choir, then known as the Dayton Westminster Choir, began touring the United States annually, singing in Carnegie Hall (New York City), nearby Cincinnati Music Hall (Cincinnati), Symphony Hall (Boston), the Academy of Music (Philadelphia), Orchestra Hall (Chicago) and the White House for President Calvin Coolidge. The Choir made its first commercial recording with RCA Victor in 1926; recordings with other major conductors and orchestras followed.

In 1928, the Choir and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski made the nation's first coast-to-coast broadcast on Cincinnati radio station WLW. By a few years later, the Choir made a total of 60 half-hour broadcasts from NBC's New York facilities.

On March 9, 1929, the Choir performed at the White House for newly inaugurated President Herbert Hoover. Years later, the Choir also sang for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The first European tour took place in 1929 and was sponsored by Dayton philanthropist Katharine Houk Talbott and endorsed by Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra. The tour included 26 concerts in major cities of Europe.

Originally a three-year program, the Choir School moved to Ithaca College in New York State in 1929 and enlarged its curriculum to a four-year program culminating in a Bachelor of Music degree. A major reason for the move involved the need to be able to reach the major cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York by rail. All three were cities that sought the choir under Williamson.

1932–1991: Independent music school in Princeton

In 1932, the choir school relocated to Princeton, New Jersey, which became its long-term home. Classes were held in the First Presbyterian Church and the Princeton Seminary until 1934, when the school moved to its own campus. This was made possible by a large gift from the Ohio philanthropist Sophia Strong Taylor. The dedication of the new campus was marked by a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor at the Princeton University Chapel with the Westminster Choir, soloists, and the Philadelphia Orchestra (conducted by Leopold Stokowski). The services of the soloists, orchestra, and conductor were a gift from Stokowski.

In 1934, a second European choir tour took place, lasting for nine weeks and highlighted by a live radio broadcast from Russia to the United States. In the fourteen years since its founding, in 1920, the choir already had undertaken two European tours, earning international acclaim and a campus of its own. In 1939, the State of New Jersey granted the choir school accreditation, and the name Westminster Choir College was adopted. In the years following accreditation, under Williamson's leadership, the choir would begin having regular concerts with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Also in 1939, the Westminster Choir sang with the New York Philharmonic for the first time, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.

Since the 1930s, the choir has performed over three hundred concerts with the Philharmonic, a record number for a single choir to perform with an orchestra. Late in 1939, the choir sang with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. That same year, the choir, directed by Williamson, sang at the dedication of the New York World's Fair, which was broadcast to 53 countries.

In 1957, under the auspices of the U.S. State Department Cultural Exchange Program, the choir undertook a five-month world tour, concertizing in 22 countries and covering 40,000 miles (64,000 km), appearing before approximately a quarter-million people.

In 1958, Williamson retired as President of Westminster Choir College. On July 3, 1964, shortly after his death, and in accordance with his requests, his ashes were scattered on his beloved campus. This was said to have taken place during the performance of the Verdi Requiem with the Westminster Festival Choir, soloists, and the Festival Orchestra conducted by maestro Eugene Ormandy. This performance on the Westminster campus was part of the Tercentennial Celebration of the State of New Jersey. The following day, a memorial service for Williamson was held in the College Chapel.

1991–2017: Merger with Rider University and maintenance of dual campuses

Several schools, including nearby Princeton University as well as Drew University, Yale University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and The Juilliard School, all had an interest in purchasing Westminster Choir College. The desire of Westminster to remain in its historic campus resulted in an arrangement with the nearby Rider College. In 1992, following a year of affiliation, Rider College merged with Westminster Choir College and the music school became a part of the newly created Rider University. Despite promises that Rider would maintain the Westminster Choir College campus in Princeton, two years later, Rider President J. Barton Luedeke began exploring a move that would relocate WCC to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, to be with the rest of Rider University. By 1996, the choir college appeared to have a vibrant fiscal future in Princeton, operating in the black, thanks to increased enrollment and donations. One year later Erdman Hall was renovated, restored, and reopened as the Presser Music Center at Erdman Hall, featuring teaching studios, a keyboard laboratory, voice library and resource center, and new classroom space.

Despite the optimistic future in the 1990s, by the early 2000s Rider University determined Westminster Choir College either must create an even stronger fiscal future or face closure. Looking for a way to control costs and more effectively create synergies between the two campuses of Rider University (Westminster's and the main campus), in November 2007, Rider University President Mordechai Rozanski announced the creation of the Westminster College of the Arts. Westminster College of the Arts was envisioned to integrate Rider and Westminster more successfully, and create a new culture and environment of artistic excellence on both campuses. Westminster Choir College continued to educate Westminster College of the Arts students in the fields of piano, composition, voice, organ, choral conducting, sacred music, and music education. The newly formed School of Fine and Performing Arts served as the gateway to receiving a degree in musical theatre, arts administration, and music, as well as a non-professional degree (B.A. in Fine Arts) in music, dance, and theater. The creation of Westminster College of the Arts sparked heated debate among administrators, students, alumni and faculty that highlighted the divide between Rider's Princeton and Lawrenceville campuses.

Westminster formed the Princeton University Program with nearby Princeton University. By reciprocal arrangement, Westminster students, except freshmen, may petition to take courses at Princeton. Generally, no cost is involved beyond tuition charges at Westminster. Students are limited to one course per term, to fall or spring enrollment and to courses not offered by Westminster. The program is limited to 10 students per semester, selection and approval being made by academic deans at both institutions. In return, ten select students of Princeton University study and take courses at Westminster each semester.

2017–present: Move to Lawrenceville

On March 28, 2017, after months of speculation following an announcement by Rider that it was again considering moving the Westminster students to the Lawrenceville campus and selling the Princeton campus due to purported financial problems, it was decided by the Board of Trustees that Rider would, instead, attempt to sell WCC to a new affiliate partner. A timeline of 12 months was established with hopes that a buyer would be found in the upcoming year.

On February 26, 2018, Rider announced its intention to sell Westminster to Kaiwen Education Technology (formerly Jiansu Zhongtai Steel Structure Company), a for-profit enterprise owned solely by the Chinese government. This created widespread speculation that it was President Gregory G. Dell'Omo's intention to scuttle the college. This was also reported in a March 2018 Bloomberg Business News article which said that Beijing Kaiwen Education Technology Company had agreed to pay $40 million for the college. The sale subsequently faced opposition from state politicians on grounds of national security, and lawsuits from Westminster alumni and donors and the Princeton Theological Seminary alleging, among other things, violation of IRS regulations and of previous agreements governing the Princeton campus.

On July 1, 2019, it was announced that Beijing Kaiwen was withdrawing from the proposed purchase. This was followed by news that Rider would relocate Westminster's programs to the Lawrenceville campus in September 2020. At Rider University's convocation exercises on August 29, 2019, Dell'Omo announced that the relocation of Westminster and the sale of a large portion of Westminster's Princeton campus would directly benefit Rider University's ongoing campus investments.

Westminster Choir College officially relocated to Rider's Lawrenceville campus in fall 2020, operating under remote instruction because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the Westminster College of the Arts merged with the Rider University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to create the College of Arts and Sciences of which Westminster Choir College is now a school. Enrollment in on-ground programs, which had plummeted due to the move and the COVID-19 pandemic, began to regrow in Fall 2024 (online enrollments in Westminster's master's programs has remained strong), and students' complaints as to the suitability of Rider's facilities have been addressed through continued projects like new flooring and acoustical treatment for Gill Chapel, the renovation of the SRC Seminar Room as a rehearsal space for opera, and the creation of a music computer lab in the Fine Arts Building.

Grammy Awards

James Whitbourn: Annelies, 2014

Westminster Williamson Voices,

James Jordan, Ariana Zukerman, and The Lincoln Trio with Bharat Chandra

Naxos Records (Nominated)

Dvořák: Requiem; Symphony No.9 From the New World, 2000

The Westminster Symphonic Choir

Zdeněk Mácal and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

Delos Records

Berlioz: Romeo & Juliet, 1986

The Westminster Symphonic Choir

Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra

Angel/EMI (Nominated)

Barber: Antony & Cleopatra, 1983

The Westminster Symphonic Choir

C. Badea and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra

New World Records

Haydn: Lord Nelson Mass, 1977

The Westminster Symphonic Choir

Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic

Columbia (Nominated)

Symphonic performances

The Westminster Symphonic Choir has performed with many major orchestras and conductors including: New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, NBC Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Symphonic Choir, under the direction of Westminster's Director of Choral Activities, has sung at individual performances of large orchestral/choral works with professional orchestras conducted by Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Eugene Ormandy, William Steinberg, Leopold Stokowski, Charles Dutoit, Neville Marriner, Nicholas McGegan, Arturo Toscanini, and Bruno Walter, and such contemporary figures as Pierre Boulez, Mariss Jansons, Erich Leinsdorf, James Levine, Zdeněk Mácal, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Robert Shaw, Zubin Mehta, Albert Wolff, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. The choir has also received numerous invitations over the years to sing with such touring orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Korean Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic when these orchestras have come to perform in New York City and Philadelphia. Since the move of WCC in 2020 to Rider University's Lawrenceville campus, WCC has collaborated with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Princeton Symphony.

Notable people

Past and present faculty

Robert L. Annis, Dean of Westminster Choir College of Rider University, 1992–2014

Dalton Baldwin, Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Piano and Voice, since 1948

Diane Meredith Belcher, Assistant Professor of Organ, 2003–2006

Ken Cowan, Coordinator of Organ and Sacred Music, 2006–2012

Faith Esham, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice since 2000

Joseph Flummerfelt, distinguished Professor of Choral Conducting, 1971–2004. Deceased.

Zehava Gal, Adjunct Associate Professor of Voice since 1994

James Jordan, Professor of Choral Music and Senior Conductor since 1991

Joan Lippincott, Organ Department, 1960–1994

Alexander McCurdy, Organ Department, 1940–1965

Alan Morrison, Associate Professor and Chair of the Organ Department

Sharon Sweet, Associate Professor of Voice since 1999

John Finley Williamson, Founder and influential choral conductor. Deceased.

Marion Zarzeczna, Piano

Alumni

E. Wayne Abercrombie, conductor and Professor Emeritus at University of Massachusetts Amherst

Adele Addison, African American lyric soprano

Norah Amsellem, operatic soprano and a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions

Amy Anderson, stand-up comedian, actor, and writer

Jennifer Aylmer, operatic soprano noted for performances with the Metropolitan Opera

Pamela Baird, former actress, best known for her role on Leave It to Beaver

Jean Ashworth Bartle, Canadian choral conductor, Founder of the Toronto Children's Chorus

Diane Curry, mezzo-soprano

Scott Dettra, concert organ virtuoso, former organist of Washington National Cathedral

Elsie Hillman, Republican philanthropist

Helen Kemp, world-renowned children's choir clinician, Westminster Professor Emerita of Voice and Church Music.

Jennifer Larmore, internationally renowned mezzo-soprano

Joan Lippincott, concert organ virtuoso, former head of Westminster's Organ Department

James Litton, American choral conductor, American Boychoir

George Lynn, conductor, composer, organist, and music educator