Westminster Choir College this year has been marking its 100 years of history, which began in 1927 when conductor and music educator John Finley Williamson opened the Westminster Choir School in Dayton, Ohio. The celebrations will culminate May 15 with an Anniversary Chapel Service at Princeton University Chapel, which will bring together alumni to sing with the current members of the college’s combined choirs.
The Centennial, however, also carries with it the weight of the past decade, which saw the college’s programs relocated from its historic Princeton site in 2020 to the Lawrenceville campus of Rider University, with which Westminster merged in 1991. The move faced opposition from alumni, students and parents, who feared the relocation would dilute the college’s programs and potentially subsume its legacy.
Nevertheless, the college’s legacy – graduates who became so-called ministers of music as conductors, choir members, music educators and church choir directors, bringing music to countless others – continues. A Tempo host Rachel Katz chats with Jason Vodicka, a Westminster alum who serves as Senior Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences at Rider, about the upcoming concert, the college’s history, and its current directions.