Westminster Choir College of Rider University
Westminster Choir College is a division of Rider University's Westminster College of the Arts, which educates and trains aspiring performers, artists, teachers, and students with artistic interests, to pursue professional, scholarly, and lifelong personal opportunities in art, dance, music and theater. Westminster College of the Arts consists of three divisions: Westminster Choir College, the School of Fine and Performing Arts and Westminster Conservatory. All three divisions present performances and exhibits throughout the year, most of which are open to the public.
Westminster Choir College is a college of music and graduate school located in Princeton. Renowned for its tradition of choral excellence, Westminster has become a center of excellence in solo performance as well. The College has eight major choirs, including the Westminster Symphonic Choir, which has performed and recorded with virtually all of the major orchestras and conductors of our time, and the Westminster Choir, which sets the standard for choral excellence in America today. Its programs include music education; music theory and composition; sacred music; voice, organ, and piano performance and pedagogy; choral conducting; and piano accompanying and coaching. Westminster also presents programs for amateur and professional musicians throughout the year, including summer campus for middle school and high school students.
The School of Fine and Performing Arts is located on Rider's Lawrenceville campus. Its programs include arts administration, music theater and fine arts with tracks in dance, music, theater and art. The School provides many opportunities for all students to participate in the arts. The highly regarded theater program produces plays and musicals throughout the year. The Rider University Band and the Rider University Choir welcome participants from the entire University community. The Rider dance program presents several performances, some in collaboration with local dance companies. The Rider Art Gallery showcases leading regional and national artists, as well as student work. Artist lectures and gallery recitals bring additional opportunities for artistic enrichment to students and the community.
For more than 40 years Westminster Conservatory of Music has served the Central New Jersey/Eastern Pennsylvania area with on-campus and community-based music instruction. The community music school of Westminster College of the Arts, it offers a superior faculty and tailors lessons, workshops and classes to the needs of the individual student.
Music study at the Conservatory provides a unique opportunity for musical growth and is available to students of all ages and stages of advancement. It also offers many opportunities to perform through its community choral, orchestral and theater ensembles. In addition to its program on the Westminster Choir College campus in Princeton, the Conservatory offers classes at extensions in Lawrenceville and South Brunswick, New Jersey and in Newtown and Yardley, Pennsylvania.
Rider University is a private co-educational university with campuses in Lawrenceville and Princeton, New Jersey, emphasizes purposeful connections between academic study and education for the professions. Its four colleges - The College of Business Administration; College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences; the College of Continuing Studies and Westminster College of the Arts - provide dynamic undergraduate programs in more than 60 areas and graduate programs in 18 specialties.
Rider is a member of the NCAA Division I and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) for both men's and women's athletics, and currently offers 20 intercollegiate sports on the varsity level. In addition to enjoying tremendous success in championship competition, Rider has earned equal recognition for the outstanding academic achievement of its student-athletes.
Rider's rigorous, hands-on learning prepares students to think critically and communicate clearly to become socially responsible leaders.