(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Westminster Choir College presents its 2017 Art Song Festival, titled “American Voice” on Friday and Saturday, February 24 and 25, 2017, in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, N.J. The festival includes recitals at 7:30pm on Friday and Saturday. A free symposium titled “Uniquely American Voice,” will be held, from 10:00am to 1:00pm, on Saturday.
Each evening will feature Westminster Professor J. J. Penna, piano, and Westminster Choir College students. Friday’s recital, titled “An American Modernist Voice,” features works by Charles Ives, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Elliot Carter, John Harbison, John Cage, Joseph Schwantner, William Bolcom, Amy Beth Kirsten and Chris Cerrone. Saturday’s recital, titled “Voices of Today, Songs by Living American Composers,” features works by John Harbison, Judith Cloud, George Rochberg, William Bolcom, Jeremy Gill, Libby Larsen and James Primosch.
The Symposium on Saturday, February 25 includes three presentations. Dr. Steve Pilkington, associate professor of sacred music, will present “What is American Music?” Dr. Barry Seldes, emeritus professor of Political Science at Rider University will present “Leonard Bernstein’s Life and Music.” Dr. Matthew Shaftel, dean of Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts, will present “Singing an Old Song: Ives’ Hymn Tune Borrowings and the Aesthetics of Nostalgia.”
Admission for each recital is $15 for adults and $10 for students/seniors. Tickets are available online or by calling the box office at 609-921-2663 Admission to the Saturday Symposium is free. Westminster Choir College is located at 101 Walnut Lane in Princeton, N.J.
To purchase tickets or to learn more, visit: www.rider.edu/arts.
About The Artists
One of the most gifted collaborative pianists of his generation, J. J. Penna has performed in recital with notable singers such as Kathleen Battle, Harolyn Blackwell, and David Daniels. Penna has been heard at the Kennedy Center; Weill Hall, Zankel Hall and Merkin Recital Hall in NYC; the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City; Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood; Wigmore Hall in London; as well as on concert tours throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, the Far East, South America and the former Soviet Union.
Devoted to the performance and study of new music, Penna has premiered song cycles by William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Hundley and Lowell Liebermann. He has performed and held fellowships at prestigious festivals, such as Tanglewood Music Center, Chautauqua Institution, Banff Center for the Arts, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, and San Francisco Opera Center’s Merola Program, where he received the Otto Guth Award. In addition to serving on the Westminster Choir College faculty he is a coach at The Juilliard School.
Dr. Barry Seldes has taught Political Theory, Freedom and Authority, European politics, Politics of the Global Economy, and American Political Thought among other topics. He has published articles in Handbook on Public Administration, For the Voice, Legacy of European Ideas, the Austrian History Yearbook and The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography; his article on the European Union’s military force was in New Europe at the Crossroads. He continues to give lectures on the political-cultural worlds of Franz Schubert, Heinrich Heine, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, and Leonard Bernstein. His book, Leonard Bernstein: Survival and Triumph in Cold War America, was published by University of California Press in 2009. His current projects include studies of the work of the late critic Susan Sontag.
Dr. Matthew Shaftel was appointed Dean of Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts in July of 2015. Before assuming this position, he served Florida State University as associate vice president for academic affairs, director of general education, and associate dean of undergraduate studies. Dr. Shaftel hold three degrees from Yale University, and he has been recognized numerous times for excellence in music and teaching.. With a career that includes numerous published books, articles, invited articles and book chapters, Dr. Shaftel has continued his research productivity while maintaining his administrative and teaching roles. In the past year, he published his most recent textbook, a new critical edition of select Webern piano works.
