Conducted by James Jordan and Associate Conductor Tyler Weakland, the Westminster Symphonic Choir is recognized as one of the world’s leading symphonic choral ensembles. The choir has routinely recorded and performed with major orchestras and internationally acclaimed conductors over the past 90 years.
Westminster Symphonic Choir first performed in Princeton in 1934 when it joined The Philadelphia Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski to perform Bach’s Mass in B Minor in the Princeton University Chapel to celebrate the move of Westminster Choir College to New Jersey. Recent seasons have included a performance of Holst’s The Planets with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Cristian Măcelaru; the premiere of Machover’s Philadelphia Voices with The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado; Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Andrew Manze; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rossen Milanov. The choir can be heard on recordings with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, and most notably, Bernstein’s MASS with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, released on the Deutsche Grammophon label, and the Benjamin Britten War Requiem with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kurt Masur.
Last season, the choir performed Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s using a new libretto in Spanish, under the baton of Reuben Valenzuela of the Bach Collegium San Diego. The choir also performed Orff’s Carmina Burana under conductor Jenny Wong of the LA Master Chorale. This past Christmas, the Westminster Symphonic Choir was featured on the 30th Anniversary broadcast of Christmas at Westminster: An Evening of Readings and Carols, which was available across 350 public television stations nationwide. 2 CD sets of the complete performance of Christmas at Westminster: An Evening of Readings and Carols are available for purchase from GIA Publications, Inc.
