Westminster Choir
Joe Miller, Conductor
Setting
the standard for choral excellence for 88 years, the Westminster Choir
is composed of students at Westminster Choir College, a division of
Rider University's Westminster College of the Arts, in Princeton, N.J.
It has been the chorus-in-residence for the Spoleto Festival USA since
1977, performing both in concert and as the opera chorus.
With conductor Joe Miller, the ensemble's 2008-2009 season includes a
concert tour of the Midwest, performances at its home in Princeton, a
recording project and a series of concerts at the Spoleto Festival USA.
Praised by The New York Times for its "full-bodied, incisive singing,"
the Westminster Choir also forms the core of the Westminster Symphonic
Choir, which has performed and recorded with the leading conductors and
orchestras of our time.
The Symphonic Choir's 2008-2009 season includes a series of
collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and conductors Gilbert
Kaplan, Ton Koopman, Lorin Maazel and Kurt Masur in Mahler's Symphony
No. 2, Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Die Erste Walpurgisnacht and
Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé. The ensemble will also perform Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra in March at Carnegie Hall. In May the Choir will return to
Carnegie Hall to join Pierre Boulez and the Staatskapelle Berlin in
performances of Mahler's three choral symphonies, including the rarely
performed Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand."
Joe Miller
Joe
Miller is conductor of two of America's most renowned choral ensembles -
the Westminster Choir and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. As director
of choral activities at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in
Princeton, N.J., he oversees an extensive choral program that includes
eight ensembles.
His 2008-2009 season includes a series of collaborations with the New
York Philharmonic and conductors Gilbert Kaplan, Ton Koopman, Lorin
Maazel and Kurt Masur. He will collaborate with Mariss Jansons and the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 in March at Carnegie Hall. In May 2009 he and the
Westminster Symphonic Choir will return to Carnegie Hall to join Pierre
Boulez and the Staatskapelle Berlin in performances of Mahler's three
choral symphonies.
Guest conductor for numerous all-state and honors choirs, this season he
will conduct the Illinois All-State Choir in January and the California
All-State Choir in March. He will also be a presenter with Chorus
America at the National Collegiate Choral Conductors (NCCO) Conference
in Cincinnati and the headliner at the American Choral Directors
Association's Virginia Summer Conference.
Dr. Miller will lead the Westminster Choir on a concert tour of the
Midwest in January, and they will travel to the Spoleto Festival USA in
the summer for their annual residency. He will return to Princeton to
conduct the two-week Westminster Chamber Choir program and the
Westminster Choral Festival in July.
Keynote speaker at a recent Chorus America conference, he said "Choral
music in the United States has seen unprecedented growth in the past
several decades. The influence of our past leaders is part of our
fabric, but we must seize this time to create a new vision based on the
foundation that has been laid before us. We must keep the traditions but
be willing to change in order to build a vision for the future."
Joe Miller earned a master's degree and a doctorate in choral conducting
from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. He
holds a bachelor's degree in music education and voice from the
University of Tennessee.
Last revised
February 14, 2010