In 1992 Westminster Choir College merged with Rider University, whose main campus is in Lawrenceville, N.J., greatly expanding areas of study and social opportunities for Westminster’s students.   Rider University’s student body totals more than 5,100 students enrolled in undergraduate programs in 50 areas and graduate programs in 14 specialties, including an M.B.A. through the College of Business Administration, six programs in the College of Education and Human Services, and nine at Westminster.  The Princeton Review has ranked Rider as among the best 345 colleges, or top ten percent, academically in the nation.  For several years U.S. News & World Report has ranked Rider in the top tier of northern regional universities.

The College

Setting the standard for choral excellence for over 80 years, Westminster Choir College is the home of the world-renowned Westminster Choir and the Westminster Symphonic Choir.  Both choirs have performed hundreds of times and made more than 150 recordings with the principal orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Berlin.  Conductors of the Westminster Symphonic Choir have included Bernstein, Ormandy, Steinberg, Stokowski, Toscanini and Walter, as well as such contemporary figures as Leinsdorf, Levine, Macal, Masur, Mehta, Muti, Ozawa, Sawallisch, Shaw and Wolff.   With its conductor Joseph Flummerfelt, the Westminster Choir has been the chorus-in-residence for the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. since 1977, performing both in concert and as the opera chorus.  The Choir was also the chorus-in-residence for the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, for 23 years.

Last year they were the only choral ensembles to participate in two nationally broadcast programs commemorating the events of September 11 – A Requiem for September 11, which was televised on PBS and In the Shadow of the Towers, which was broadcast on Public Radio International (PRI).

Westminster’s major programs of study are distinctly career oriented, leading to Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, a summer-study Master of Music Education degree, a Bachelor of Arts degree in music.  Programs include: music theory and composition; music education; music theater; sacred music; voice, organ, and piano performance and pedagogy; choral conducting; and piano accompanying and coaching.  Continuing to follow its choral foundation, in addition to the Westminster Festival Choir, the college has eight major choirs providing all students extensive performing opportunities.  They are:

·        Westminster Choir

·        Westminster Symphonic Choir

·        Westminster Chapel Choir

·        Westminster Concert Choir

·        Westminster Schola Cantorum

·        Westminster Singers

·        Westminster Jubilee Singers

·        Westminster Concert Bell Choir

A professional college of music with a unique choral emphasis, Westminster prepares students at the undergraduate and graduate levels for careers in teaching, performance and sacred music.  Westminster alumni appear regularly in the world’s great opera houses, including the Met, La Scala and Covent Garden; on Broadway and in some of America’s most prestigious churches, including St. Ignatius Loyola in New York, the Crystal Cathedral in California and Coral Springs Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale; as well as in countless music studios and classrooms throughout the world. 

It has been estimated that each week, one million people world-wide study or perform under the leadership of a Westminster graduate. 

The Westminster Bell Choir

Hailed for its virtuosity, the Westminster Concert Bell Choir uses the largest range of handbells in the world - 7½ octaves, from G1 to C9.  Many of the bells are made of bronze and range in weight from four ounces to 11 pounds; the Choir also uses the large “Basso Profundo” aluminum-cast bells that are a new phenomenon in handbell ringing.  The Choir supplements their handbell set with a six-octave set of Malmark Choirchime® Instruments from C2 to C8 – the widest range in existence – from Malmark, Inc. - Bellcraftsmen in Plumsteadville, Penna. The Westminster Concert Bell Choir has appeared on Public Television’s “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and several holiday broadcasts of the “Today Show,” including one in which the ensemble was joined by NBC television personalities Katie Couric and Willard

Scott.  Its holiday performances have been heard annually on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and it is included on NPR’s Christmas Around the Country II recording.  The Choir has made five recordings: Westminster Concert Bell Choir, Christmas Bells, Westminster Rings!, Praise and Adoration and Christmas at Westminster: The Westminster Concert Bell Choir. The handbell program at Westminster, which was instituted to fulfill the need to train church musicians and music educators in the art of handbell ringing, was the world’s first curriculum of handbell ringing in an institution of higher learning. Director of the Westminster Concert Bell Choir, Kathleen Ebling-Thorne is a graduate of Westminster Choir College and is recognized internationally as a clinician for ringers and conductors.  Choirs under the direction of Ms. Ebling-Thorne have performed at Carnegie Hall, the World Financial Center’s Festival of Light and Sound, Lifetime Television, QVC, NBC’s TODAY Show and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.  She has also produced three recordings with the Westminster Concert Bell Choir: Westminster Choir College of Rider University 101 Walnut Lane Princeton, New Jersey 08618 U.S.A. 800-96-CHOIR e-mail wccinfo@rider.edu http://westminster.rider.edu. Rider University 1083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648 1-800-257-9026 www.rider.edu

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