originally published: 02/24/2019



(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Westminster Choir College will present its 2019 Lindsey Christiansen Art Song Festival, titled “Speak Louder,” on Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9, in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton. Performances will be at 7:30pm. ​​​​​​​Each festival performance will feature Professor JJ Penna, piano, and Westminster Choir College students.

The Friday performance will be preceded by student research presentations at 6:45pm. Admission for each recital is $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Tickets are available online at www.rider.edu/arts or by calling the box office at 609-921-2663.

This year’s Art Song Festival celebrates 150 years of women writing for the voice. Friday night’s performance will feature works by Tonia Ko, Kaija Saariaho, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Sara Corry, Edie Hill, Jennifer Margaret Barker and Lili Boulanger. Saturday night’s performance will feature works by Margaret Bonds, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Libby Larsen, Amy Beach, Juliana Hall, Madeline Dring, Pauline Viardot, Edith Piaf, Lori Laitman, Tania Leon, Pamela Stein Lynde, Undine Smith Moore, Florence Price, Amy Beth Kirsten and Missy Mazzoli.

One of the most gifted collaborative pianists of his generation, JJ Penna has performed in recital with many of our era’s most notable singers. He has been heard at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; Weill Hall, Zankel Hall and Merkin Recital Hall in New York City; 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, he has premiered song cycles by William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Hundley and Lowell Liebermann. He has performed and held fellowships at such prestigious festivals 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.

The Lindsey Christiansen Art Song Festival is named for former Professor of Voice Lindsey Christiansen, who died in 2017. A member of Westminster’s faculty for 40 years and chair of the Voice Department for 18 years, Professor Christiansen re-established and managed the festival, which is an important part of Westminster’s performance season and academic program. She specialized in German lieder and was a life-long student and lover of the music of Franz Schubert. She was an exceptional voice teacher and a demanding professor of song literature classes, where she instilled in countless students a love for song.

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Westminster Choir College is located at 101 Walnut Lane in Princeton, N.J. For more information, visit www.rider.edu/arts.