(LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ) -- This fall, Rider University's College of Arts and Sciences will present 15 performances for its fall season. Audiences can enjoy plays, musicals, opera and choir performances, dance showcases and more, presented by the Department of Performing Arts and Westminster Choir College.
New this season, a number of subscription and patron programs are available to support the arts at Rider. A Try4Experience subscription allows for the purchase of four performances for the price of three, and a Create-Your-Own subscription earns 15% off the purchase of four performances or more.
The Rider Friend of the Arts patron program provides participants with exclusive benefits, like meet-and-greet receptions, and supports the Performing Arts Student Relief Fund or the Westminster Scholarship Fund. A special patron program for An Evening of Readings and Carols will be available from October 2-25. Patrons will receive premium seating for the performance and recognition in the concert program, as their gifts will support the Westminster Scholarship Fund.
Additionally, gifts of any kind can be made at any time to support the arts at Rider here.
For the latest information about performances, including ticket information, please visit rider.edu/arts.
October 6-8 The Prom Bart Luedeke Center Theater. Four eccentric Broadway stars are in desperate need of a new stage. So when they hear that trouble is brewing around a small-town prom, they know that it’s time to put a spotlight on the issue…and themselves. The town’s parents want to keep the high school dance on the straight and narrow—but when one student just wants to bring her girlfriend to prom, the entire town has a date with destiny. On a mission to transform lives, Broadway’s brassiest join forces with a courageous girl and the town’s citizens and the result is love that brings them all together. Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, THE PROM expertly captures all the humor and heart of a classic musical comedy with a message that resonates with audiences now more than ever.
October 18-22 Much Ado About Nothing Spitz Theater. Shakespeare's popular rom-com. Much Ado About Nothing, gets a piratical spin as we go aboard Leonata's Messina for a high-stakes love adventure on the high seas!
October 28 Westminster Chapel Choir & Jubilee Singers Concert Gill Chapel.
October 28-29 Entre’Acte: Come Together Bart Luedeke Center Theater. Join their Second-Year Musical Theatre majors as they present a cabaret of the six revolutions of rock music that started the evolving conversation with Gen-Z, that has made them the most diverse, accepting, equality minded and environmentally concerned generation ever.
November 5 New Music Concert Series Gill Chapel. Join them to hear new works from students and faculty in Westminster's Department of Music Composition, History and Theory. Enjoy a selection of new works ranging from Broadway style set of songs, choral works, piano solos, piano duet, and more.
November 5 Westminster Choir: Music of Awe and Wonder Gill Chapel. James Jordan, conductor
November 10-11 Fall Student Dance Concert Bart Luedeke Center Theater. Rider Dance majors present new student choreographed works. Christine Colosimo, curator
November 11-12 Mozart’s Requiem: Westminster Symphonic Choir & Princeton Symphony Orchestra Princeton University, Richardson Auditorium (68 Nassau Street). Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte leads off this concert centered on Mozart’s Requiem and featuring Gregory Spears’ proffered completion of the great composer’s unfinished work. The Westminster Symphonic Choir returns to Richardson Auditorium to perform with the PSO.
November 17-18 Suor Angelica and Hermit Songs Yvonne Theater. Suor Angelica – is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico. Giacomo Puccini, composer; Original libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. Hermit Songs, Op. 29 – Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs, "based on comments written on the margins of medieval manuscripts by Irish monks, are infused with a modal harmonic language of great stylistic integrity; they led [William] Schuman to hail Barber as an unmatched art-song composer." --Barbara B. Heyman's article in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. The song cycle was composed in 1953 and published in 1954. The work was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in the Library of Congress, and the premiere was sung by soprano Leontyne Price. Samuel Barber, composer; Susan Shiplett Ashbaker, music director & conductor; Michelle Eugene, stage director
November 18 Rider University Chorale Concert Gill Chapel. The first-ever Rider University Chorale concert! Tom Shelton, conductor
November 19 Westminster Jubilee Singers Fall Concert Gill Chapel. Vinroy D. Brown, Jr., conductor
December 1 Westminster Concert Bell Choir at Ocean County College Grunin Center for the Arts (1 College Drive, Toms River). Ring in the season with the Westminster Concert Bell Choir as they perform traditional carols, light classics and popular Christmas favorites on the world’s largest range of handbells. Kathleen Ebling Shaw, conductor
December 2 Westminster Concert Bell Choir Holiday Concert Gill Chapel. Ringing on the world's largest range of handbells and Choirchime Instruments, the ensemble will perform a selection of works, folk tunes and popular holiday favorites. Kathleen Ebling Shaw, conductor
December 8-10 Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 Bart Luedeke Center Theater. From the celebrated and award-winning composer Dave Malloy comes Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, an electropop opera based on a scandalous slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fiancé from the front lines. When she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, it is up to Pierre, a family friend in the middle of an existential crisis, to pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation. Following a critically exalted premiere at Ars Nova in New York City, a subsequent Off-Broadway transfer, and an acclaimed run on Broadway, this award-winning musical expands the possibilities for the genre with its daring score and bold storytelling. Book & Composition by Dave Malloy; T. Oliver Reid, director
December 8-9 An Evening of Readings and Carols Princeton University Chapel. Westminster Choir College of Rider University's popular holiday concert returns with evenings of holiday music and readings, featuring performances by Chapel Choir, Symphonic Choir, Jubilee Singers, Concert Bell Choir and the Westminster Choir.
