originally published: 02/13/2019



(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Westminster Choir College continues its Faculty Recital series with a performance by Victoria Browers, soprano; JJ Penna, piano; Evan Fein, piano and Khari Joyner, cello, titled “Real and Mystical Is Life” on Sunday, March 3 at 3:00pm in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton. Admission is free.

The artists will perform a recital of American art songs highlighting texts by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and Jane Kenyon. It will include works by Ernst Bacon, Libby Larsen, André Previn and Christian Carey, as well as world premieres of two new songs by Evan Fein.

Soprano Victoria Browers is a versatile singer who is at home in various repertoires spanning four centuries. Active on the recital, concert and opera stages, she has performed across the United States from New York to Los Angeles. Some of her favorite opera roles include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Musetta in La Bohème and the Governess in Turn of the Screw. Her recital repertoire runs the gamut from Rimsky-Korsakov to Libby Larsen; and her significant oratorio credits include performing as soprano soloist in works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Mendelssohn. An avid scholar and performer of art song as well as new music, Ms. Browers was a participant in and is currently part of Artist Faculty at SongFest in Los Angeles.

One of the most gifted collaborative pianists of his generation, JJ Penna has performed in recital with very 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 prestigious festivals, such 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.

American composer Evan Fein was born in Cleveland, Ohio and currently resides in New York City, where he serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School Pre-College and Evening Divisions. His music, known for its strongly lyrical and narrative qualities, has been widely performed in the United States and abroad, including in France, Germany, China, Iceland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. He has has been commissioned by organizations including Musica Sacra, Opéra de Poche, The Albany Symphony, The Juilliard School and The New York Choreographic Institute. He was awarded the Palmer Dixon Prize for Outstanding Composition, is the recipient of honors from the ASCAP Foundation, Boston Metro Opera and the American Scandinavian Society, and additionally serves as Chair of the Music Committee for the Board of Trustees of the Oratorio Society of New York. Evan Fein has served as Composer-in-Residence (Artiste Associé) for the Paris-based chamber opera troupe Opéra de Poche since 2012. His first opera, The Raven’s Kiss, based on Icelandic folk stories, was premiered in concert at Juilliard in 2011. His second, L’Île des sept sœurs, a Southern Gothic tale, was given its premiere in Paris in 2013 by Opéra de Poche. City of Ashes, which follows the stories of two German women in the days immediately following the fall of Berlin in 1945, was presented by Opéra de Poche in 2015 in Paris and again in Beijing in 2016. His major work for chorus and orchestra, Deborah, an oratorio based on the Book of Judges, was premiered by Musica Sacra at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in 2016.

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Described by the New York Classical Review as “one of the most exciting young musicians on the classical scene,” Khari Joyner has a following both nationally and abroad as a versatile soloist, chamber musician and ambassador for the arts. He has made numerous guest appearances with orchestras and ensembles around the world, including a recent performance of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Piedmont Park, which received rave reviews. Joyner also received a 2017-2018 career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund, which nominates and endows a select number of gifted artists with generous funding to further their careers. Joyner has performed for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, for whom he gave a private performance in the Oval Office. A passionate advocate for the music of the 21st century, Joyner has collaborated and given performances of works by major composers such as Tyshawn Sorey, Carman Moore, Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg, among many others. An active chamber musician and one of the founding members of the Altezza Piano Trio, Joyner also has given performances as a guest at the Ritz Chamber Players, Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, Fontainbeleau Music Festival, Sibelius Academy’s “Creative Dialogue” residency in Santa Fe and on WQXR as a part of the Midday Masterpieces series.

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