Rider University Presents Free Seasonal Concerts

Editor's Note: The following is a news release issued by .

Rider University will present seasonal concerts Dec. 2 and 3 on the university’s campus in Lawrence Township.  Admission to both events is free, and the public is welcome to attend.

Friday, Dec. 2 at 12:15 p.m.

The Rider University Art Gallery will present the first in its series of Gallery Concerts featuring faculty members from Westminster Conservatory, the community music school of Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts.  Danielle Sinclair, soprano, Denise Mihalik, mezzo-soprano, and Kathy Shanklin, piano, will perform a wide variety of traditional and contemporary Christmas songs arranged for two voices, including “Gloria Laudamus te,” “There is No Rose,” “In Dulci Jubilo” and “Deck the Halls.”

Danielle Sinclair has performed with orchestras throughout the country in works ranging from Bach's “Magnificat” and “St. John Passion” to Respighi's “Lauda per la Natività del Signore” and Orff's “Carmina Burana.”  She has appeared in numerous operatic roles including Musetta in “La Bohème,” Despina in “Così fan tutte,” Zerlina in “Don Giovanni,” Gretel in “Hansel and Gretel” and Mabel in “Pirates of Penzance.” Ms. Sinclair has been a frequent guest artist on Westminster Conservatory's Concert and Recital Series, and performs frequently with the Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. She is currently on the roster of New York City Opera.

Denise Mihalik, mezzo-soprano, has performed extensively throughout the United States with companies including Lyric Opera Cleveland, Natchez Festival Opera, Greensboro Opera Company, and Opera Festival of New Jersey.  She has toured with the National Opera Company performing as Rosina in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” Cherubino in “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Meg Page in “Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor,” Fidalma in “Il Matrimonio Segreto,” and Perichole in “La Perichole.” Ms. Mihalik has also appeared in theater and musical theater productions in roles including Fiona in “Brigadoon,” Anna Held in “Tintypes” and Marianne in “The Miser.”  Concert appearances include performances with the North Carolina Symphony and the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, among others, in Handel's “Messiah,” the requiems of Mozart, Fauré, and Duruflé, and Bach's “St. John Passion.”

In addition to her faculty position at Westminster Conservatory pianist Kathy Shanklin is the director of music at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Bridgewater and the organist at Temple Beth'el in Somerville.

Saturday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m.

The Rider University Chorale and the Rider University Choir will present their winter concert in Gill Memorial Chapel.  The program will feature the Rider University Choir, conducted by Philip Orr, performing seasonal works that include an arrangement of the Sephardic folk song “Durme, Durme,” Michael Sample’s arrangement of “Canion de Los Tsachilas,” and Philip Orr’s “Creator of the Stars of Night” and “O Lux Beatissima.”  The Rider University Chorale, conducted by Sun Min Lee, will perform excerpts from Handel’s “Messiah.”

The Rider University Choir was founded in 1959. Its repertoire ranges from the medieval to the modern, from formal, through folk, to popular styles, and always in performances of passion and integrity. Membership is drawn without audition from the entire Rider University community of students, faculty and staff. Its mission is to be moved and to move others through choral singing.

Philip Orr brings 35 years professional experience in conducting, performing, composing and teaching to his position as director of the Rider University Choir. The current minister of music at Calvary Baptist Church in Hopewell he has directed choirs for 30 years in churches of four denominations in four states. Mr. Orr’s extensive performance career has largely centered on his work as piano, organ and synthesizer soloist and collaborator with occasional forays as trumpet/flugelhorn/mellophone soloist, recorder soloist and baritone chorister. He has been a featured performer on two LP and five CD recordings. His published compositions and arrangements integrate his eclectic tastes into works for vocal and instrumental solos and ensembles in various genres.

The Rider University Chorale is the newest choral ensemble at Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts. Now in its third season, the 70-voice Chorale focuses on the fundamentals of artistic choral singing and explores various choral repertoires. Composed primarily of musical theatre majors at Rider University, it is open to all students by audition.

Sun Min Lee has been the conductor of the Rider University Chorale since 2010. Before this appointment, she served for six years as a member of the Choral Conducting faculty at Rider University’s Westminster Choir College, where she conducted the Westminster Chapel Choir. Also during that time she conducted Westminster Schola Cantorum and the Westminster Symphonic Choir and taught both undergraduate and graduate conducting courses. Ms. Lee has also collaborated with many renowned conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Anton Armstrong and Stephen Paulus.  She is in demand as a guest conductor, clinician and lecturer.  Her future engagements include conducting at the 2011 North Carolina Music Educators Association’s Choral Festival and the 2012 Delaware All-State Choir Festival.

To learn more about these performances go to www.rider.edu/arts