John Finley Williamson founded
the Westminster Choir in 1920 at the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Dayton,
Ohio. Convinced that professionally
trained musicians could best serve the church, he established the Westminster
Choir School in September 1926 with
sixty students and a faculty of ten. As
the Choir School and its Choir’s reputation grew, the demand for the School’s
graduates increased. The graduates came
to be known as “Ministers of Music”, a term coined by Dr. Williamson and still
being used today by many church music programs.
As early as 1922, the Choir, then
known as the Dayton Westminster Choir, began touring the United States annually
and sang in such prominent places as Carnegie Hall (New York City), Symphony
Hall (Boston), the Academy of Music (Philadelphia), Orchestra Hall (Chicago)
and the White House for President Coolidge.
Years later the Choir also sang for Presidents Roosevelt and Eisenhower.
The Westminster Choir made its
first commercial recording with RCA Victor in 1926. Subsequently the Choir
recorded with major conductors and orchestras; these recordings are listed in
the Discography.
In 1928, the Westminster Choir
and Cincinnati Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski
made the nation’s first coast-to-coast radio broadcast on Cincinnati
station WLW. A few years later because of the Choir’s growing reputation it
made a total of 60 half-hour broadcasts from NBC’s New
York facilities.
The first European tour took
place in 1929 and was sponsored by Dayton
philanthropist Katharine Hauk Talbott
and endorsed by Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New
York Symphony. The tour included 26 concerts in major cities of Europe.
Originally a three year program,
the Choir School moved to Ithaca College
in New York State
in 1929 and enlarged its curriculum to a four year program culminating in a
Bachelor of Music degree. This move
ultimately proved unsatisfactory.
In 1932, the Choir .School relocated to Princeton,
New Jersey which became its permanent home.
Classes were held in the First Presbyterian Church and the Princeton Seminary
until 1934 when the Choir School moved into its present campus. This was made possible by a large gift from
the philanthropist Sophia Strong Taylor.
The dedication of the new campus was marked by a performance of Bach’s
Mass in B Minor at the Princeton University Chapel with the Westminster Choir,
soloists, and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Because
of his high regard for the Choir, the services of the soloists, orchestra, and
conductor were a gift from Maestro Stokowski.
There was a second European Choir
tour in 1934 lasting nine weeks and highlighted by a live radio broadcast from Russia
to the United States. It is interesting to note that in the
fourteen short years since its founding in 1920, the Choir already had two
European tours which earned it international acclaim and a campus of its own.
The State of New Jersey in 1939
granted the Choir School accreditation and the name Westminster
Choir College
was adopted.
In years to come, under Dr.
Williamson’s leadership, the Choir would begin having regular concerts with the
New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Westminster Choir
sang with the New York Philharmonic for the first time in 1939 conducted by Sir
John Barbirolli.
Since that time the Choir has sung over three hundred performances with
the Philharmonic, a record number for a single choir to perform with an
orchestra. Later that year the Choir
sang with the NBC Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini. That same year the Choir, directed by Dr.
Williamson, sang at the dedication of the New York
World’s Fair which was broadcast to fifty-three countries.
In 1957, under the auspices of
the U.S. State Department Cultural Exchange Program, the Choir undertook a five
month world tour, concertizing in twenty-two
countries, covering 40,000 miles and appearing before approximately a quarter
of a million people.
Dr. Williamson retired as
President of Westminster Choir College in 1958; however, he continued to give
choral clinics and seminars around the world. Most notably in 1959, the U.S.
State Department asked Dr. Williamson to organize a Westminster
alumni choir to tour Africa. This choir was called the Westminster
Singers. The African tour consisted of performances in fifty cities in
twenty-six countries with audiences totaling more than 250,000. Following this tour, at the invitation of
leading vocal teachers and choral conductors, Dr. Williamson’s “retirement”
consisted of conducting choral clinics and vocal festivals throughout the
United States Japan, Korea
and the Philippines. A South American choir tour was being planned
by the State Department but was canceled because of Dr. Williamson’s untimely
death in 1964.