Westminster Choir
Over its history, the Westminster Choir has grown into one of the leading musical establishments anywhere in the United States. Renowned American choral conductor John Finley Williamson founded the choir in 1920 for the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Dayton, OH. By 1929, Williamson had already built the first group of untrained voices into a professional ensemble of national and international fame; the choir affiliated itself in that year with Ithaca College in New York. In 1932, the choir moved to Princeton, NJ, where it had easy access to the orchestras of New York and Philadelphia, and its home has been there since. Westminster Choir College (an academic unit of Rider University in Princeton) began as an outgrowth of the choir's activities. Fully eight choral ensembles now make up the performing apparatus of the college: the Westminster Chapel Choir (employing the college's freshman class), the Westminster Schola Cantorum (sophomores), the 200-voice Westminster Symphony Choir, the more select 40-voice Westminster Choir, the chamber-sized Westminster Kantorei, a Bell Choir, the Jubilee Singers, and an outreach choir named the Westminster Williamson Voices. The Symphony Choir and the Westminster Choir present the face of the college to the world in tours and recordings.
Both of these most visible Westminster Choirs have left an astounding trail of musical achievements. The Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski was the first major orchestra to incorporate the Westminster Choir into its performances, in 1934. Since that time, the list of its collaborations includes nearly every major conductor in the world, from Bruno Walter to Claudio Abbado, from Arturo Toscanini to Pierre Boulez, from Sergey Rachmaninov to Gustavo Dudamel. The choir has performed over 300 times in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra alone. The Westminster Choir has brought its choral art on tour around the world and has recorded on 12 labels. Since the 1977 inception of the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., the Westminster Choir has been its chorus-in-residence; it also served as chorus-in-residence for the Festival dei due mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Between 1971 and 2004, the Westminster Choir performed under the baton of its artistic director Joseph Flummerfelt and received its first Grammy nomination in 1976, for a recording of Sergey Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. A later national honor came in 2002, when the Westminster Choir was asked to perform Verdi's Messa da Requiem in a televised memorial for the events of September 11th. Joe Miller took over the choir after Flummerfelt's retirement. His recordings with the Choir, including The Heart’s Reflection: Music of Daniel Elder (2013), were all well received by critics.
© Timothy Dickey /TiVo
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Discography
19 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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The Great Recordings, 1929-1954
Opera - Released by Urania Records on 1 Aug 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Te deum - Mahler: Symphonie No. 5 (Mono Version)
New York Philharmonic, Bruno Walter, Westminster Choir
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Bruno Walter, John Finley Williamson, Westminster Choir
Symphonic Music - Released by Urania on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Heart's Reflection (Music of Daniel Elder)
Westminster Choir, Joe Miller, Mark Foster, John Hudson, Jeffrey D. Grubbs
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Westminster Choir College on 29 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Martin: Mass for Double Choir
Westminster Choir, Sherezade Panthaki, Joe Miller, David Kim, Joseph Conyers
Classical - Released by Westminster Choir College on 21 Sep 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Westminster Christmas, Vol. 2
Classical - Released by Westminster Choir College on 1 Nov 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Masterpieces and Familiar Carols
Westminster Choir, Anne Ackley, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Concerto Soloists, Joseph Flummerfelt
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Westminster Choir College on 16 Oct 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Flower of Beauty
Classical - Released by Westminster Choir College on 6 Nov 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Legacy
Westminster Choir, Joseph Flummerfelt, Nancianne Parella
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Westminster Choir College on 3 Jul 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 1, Alto Rhapsody & Tragic Overture
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, NBC Symphony Orchestra, Martha Lipton, Guido Cantelli, Westminster Choir, New York Philharmonic
Classical - Released by Stradivarius on 1 Nov 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler, G.: Symphony No. 2 (Walter) (1957)
Maria Stader, Maureen Forrester, Westminster Choir, New York Philharmonic, Bruno Walter
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 4 Jun 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi, Wagner, Verdi & Brahms: Madrigals & Parsifal-Te Deum - Alto Rhapsody - Magnificat
Martha Lipton, John Finlay Williamson, Nadia Boulanger Ensemble, Westminster Choir
Classical - Released by ArnebAudio on 3 Oct 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms, J.: 18 Liebeslieder Waltzes / 14 Deutsche Volkslieder / Quartets - Opp. 64, 92 (Traditional - Georg Friedrich Daumer - Johannes Brahms)
Classical - Released by Delos on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tim Brent: Peace Song (Beatitudes)
Westminster Choir, Gloria Wan, Joe Miller
Classical - Released by Westminster Choir College on 21 Sep 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Le Messie, extraits (Mono Version)
Westminster Choir, New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: The Tempest, Op. 18, TH 44 & Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78 (Live)
NBC Symphony Orchestra, Westminster Choir, Léopold Stokowski
Classical - Released by Archipel on 5 Aug 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Conducts Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
New York Philharmonic, Audience, Nadine Conner, Bruno Walter, Mona Paulee, Westminster Choir
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 6 Aug 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Noel: A Musical Feast
Classical - Released by Gothic on 11 Oct 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Serenity of Soul (Westminster Choir 100th Anniversary Recording)
Westminster Choir, James Jordan, Gregory Stout
Classical - To be released on 3 May 2024 by GIA ChoralWorks
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo