1920–1932: Presbyterian beginnings to the creation of a college In 1920
John Finley Williamson founded the Westminster Choir at the
Westminster Presbyterian Church of
Dayton, Ohio. In 1926, he established the Westminster Choir School. The school started with a faculty of ten, and sixty students. The graduates came to be known as
Ministers of Music, a term coined by Williamson and still used today by many church music programs. The sound of the choir in its early days was heavily influenced by the work of
F. Melius Christiansen and
The St. Olaf Choir, however the choir quickly developed its own sound that more closely resembled English choirs. in 1929 In 1922, the choir, then known as the Dayton Westminster Choir, began touring the United States annually, singing in
Carnegie Hall (New York City), nearby
Cincinnati Music Hall (Cincinnati),
Symphony Hall (
Boston), the
Academy of Music (
Philadelphia),
Orchestra Hall (Chicago) and the
White House for President
Calvin Coolidge. The Choir made its first commercial recording with
RCA Victor in 1926; recordings with other major conductors and orchestras followed. In 1928, the Choir and the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Leopold Stokowski made the nation's first coast-to-coast broadcast on
Cincinnati radio station WLW. By a few years later, the Choir made a total of 60 half-hour broadcasts from
NBC's New York facilities. On March 9, 1929, the Choir performed at the White House for newly inaugurated President
Herbert Hoover. Years later, the Choir also sang for Presidents
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Dwight D. Eisenhower, and
Lyndon B. Johnson. The first European tour took place in 1929 and was sponsored by Dayton philanthropist Katharine Houk Talbott and endorsed by
Walter Damrosch, conductor of the
New York Symphony Orchestra. 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. A major reason for the move involved the need to be able to reach the major cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York by rail. All three were cities that sought the choir under Williamson.
1932–1991: Independent music school in Princeton In 1932, the choir school relocated to
Princeton, New Jersey, which became its long-term home. Classes were held in the
First Presbyterian Church and the
Princeton Seminary until 1934, when the school moved to its own campus. This was made possible by a large gift from the Ohio philanthropist Sophia Strong Taylor. The dedication of the new campus was marked by a performance of
Johann Sebastian Bach's
Mass in B minor at the
Princeton University Chapel with the Westminster Choir, soloists, and the
Philadelphia Orchestra (conducted by
Leopold Stokowski). The services of the soloists, orchestra, and conductor were a gift from Stokowski. In 1934, a second European choir tour took place, lasting for nine weeks and highlighted by a live radio broadcast from Russia to the United States. In the fourteen years since its founding, in 1920, the choir already had undertaken two European tours, earning international acclaim and a campus of its own. In 1939, the
State of New Jersey granted the choir
school accreditation, and the name Westminster Choir College was adopted. In the years following accreditation, under Williamson's leadership, the choir would begin having regular concerts with the
New York Philharmonic and the
Philadelphia Orchestra. Also in 1939, the Westminster Choir sang with the New York Philharmonic for the first time, conducted by
Sir John Barbirolli. Since the
1930s, the choir has performed over three hundred concerts with the Philharmonic, a record number for a single choir to perform with an orchestra. Late in 1939, the choir sang with the
NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by
Arturo Toscanini. That same year, the choir, directed by Williamson, sang at the dedication of the
New York World's Fair, which was broadcast to 53 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 22 countries and covering , appearing before approximately a quarter-million people. In 1958, Williamson retired as President of Westminster Choir College. On July 3, 1964, shortly after his death, and in accordance with his requests, his ashes were scattered on his beloved campus. This was said to have taken place during the performance of the
Verdi Requiem with the Westminster Festival Choir, soloists, and the Festival Orchestra conducted by
maestro Eugene Ormandy. This performance on the Westminster campus was part of the
Tercentennial Celebration of the State of New Jersey. The following day, a memorial service for Williamson was held in the College Chapel. In 1976, the choir college celebrated its 50th anniversary, highlighted by a performance of
Ludwig van Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 with the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (conducted by
Robert Shaw), alumni soloists, and the Westminster Alumni Choir on the
Princeton University campus. Despite a promising future at the 50th anniversary, Westminster soon began to see its prospects for continued existence threatened. Facilities on the campus fell into disrepair, and Erdman Hall was ultimately condemned as unfit for use. Recognizing that the college could not continue in this path, Westminster was faced with two options—either find a larger university to merge with, or cease operations.
1991–2017: Merger with Rider University and maintenance of dual campuses Several schools, including nearby Princeton University as well as
Drew University,
Yale University,
The Curtis Institute of Music, and
The Juilliard School, all had an interest in purchasing Westminster Choir College. The desire of Westminster to remain in its historic campus resulted in an arrangement with the nearby Rider College. In 1992, following a year of affiliation, Rider College merged with Westminster Choir College and the music school became a part of the newly created
Rider University. Despite promises that Rider would maintain the Westminster Choir College campus in Princeton, two years later, Rider President J. Barton Luedeke began exploring a move that would relocate WCC to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, to be with the rest of Rider University. By 1996, the choir college appeared to have a vibrant fiscal future in Princeton, operating in the black, thanks to increased enrollment and donations. One year later Erdman Hall was renovated, restored, and reopened as the Presser Music Center at Erdman Hall, featuring teaching studios, a keyboard laboratory, voice library and resource center, and new classroom space. Despite the optimistic future in the 1990s, by the early 2000s Rider University determined Westminster Choir College either must create an even stronger fiscal future or face closure. Looking for a way to control costs and more effectively create synergies between the two campuses of Rider University (Westminster's and the main campus), in November 2007, Rider University President
Mordechai Rozanski announced the creation of the Westminster College of the Arts. Westminster College of the Arts was envisioned to integrate Rider and Westminster more successfully, and create a new culture and environment of artistic excellence on both campuses. Westminster Choir College continued to educate Westminster College of the Arts students in the fields of piano, composition, voice, organ, choral conducting, sacred music, and music education. The newly formed School of Fine and Performing Arts served as the gateway to receiving a degree in musical theatre, arts administration, and music, as well as a non-professional degree (B.A. in Fine Arts) in music, dance, and theater. The creation of Westminster College of the Arts sparked heated debate among administrators, students, alumni and faculty that highlighted the divide between Rider's Princeton and Lawrenceville campuses. Westminster formed the Princeton University Program with nearby Princeton University. By reciprocal arrangement, Westminster students, except freshmen, may petition to take courses at Princeton. Generally, no cost is involved beyond tuition charges at Westminster. Students are limited to one course per term, to fall or spring enrollment and to courses not offered by Westminster. The program is limited to 10 students per semester, selection and approval being made by academic deans at both institutions. In return, ten select students of Princeton University study and take courses at Westminster each semester. In 2005, Westminster unveiled an ambitious master plan calling for upgrades including a new building, the first to be created on the campus under Rider University's stewardship. The choir college also entered a cooperative agreement with the Princeton Regional Schools, allowing for up to 40 Westminster performances per year in their newly created Regional Performing Arts Center (located in
Princeton High School across the street), alleviating Westminster's struggle from having no dedicated, large performance space on the campus. The lack of a large concert venue was solved in 2013 when the State of New Jersey allotted $4.6 million to Rider University to be spent on new academic facilities for Westminster's campus. Combined with donations from alumni and other supporters of the conservatory, the funds spent on this project far exceeded $5 million. Opened in 2014, the complex is named the Marion Buckelew Cullen Center in honor of the philanthropist who died in 2012 and made a $5 million bequest to Westminster Choir College. The new building contains a 3,000-square-foot performance and rehearsal hall named the Hillman Performance Hall, in recognition of the
Henry L. Hillman Foundation, which provided a $3 million grant to support the project. In addition to the performance/rehearsal hall, the Cullen Center includes a large lobby, a
green room, and three flexibly configured classrooms that accommodate a wide range of academic and choral uses. The Cullen Center also includes an integrated connection to The Playhouse that provides improved audience access and amenities. To maximize the opportunities the project offers for enhancing The Playhouse itself, the college secured $1.5 million to upgrade this building that has played such an important role in Westminster's history. Ground was broken for the project in the summer of 2013 and the Cullen Center was completed by spring 2015. Currently, as a result of the college's move to Lawrenceville, the Cullen Center sits abandoned with no plans for future use.
2017–present: Move to Lawrenceville On March 28, 2017, after months of speculation following an announcement by Rider that it was again considering moving the Westminster students to the Lawrenceville campus and selling the Princeton campus due to purported financial problems, it was decided by the Board of Trustees that Rider would, instead, attempt to sell WCC to a new affiliate partner. A timeline of 12 months was established with hopes that a buyer would be found in the upcoming year. On February 26, 2018, Rider announced its intention to sell Westminster to Kaiwen Education Technology (formerly Jiansu Zhongtai Steel Structure Company), a for-profit enterprise owned solely by the Chinese government. This created widespread speculation that it was President Gregory G. Dell'Omo's intention to scuttle the college. This was also reported in a March 2018
Bloomberg Business News article which said that Beijing Kaiwen Education Technology Company had agreed to pay $40 million for the college. At Rider University's convocation exercises on August 29, 2019, Dell'Omo announced that the relocation of Westminster and the sale of a large portion of Westminster's Princeton campus would directly benefit Rider University's ongoing campus investments. Westminster Choir College officially relocated to Rider's Lawrenceville campus in fall 2020, operating under remote instruction because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the Westminster College of the Arts merged with the Rider University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to create the College of Arts and Sciences of which Westminster Choir College is now a school. Enrollment in on-ground programs, which had plummeted due to the move and the COVID-19 pandemic, began to regrow in Fall 2024 (online enrollments in Westminster's master's programs has remained strong), and students' complaints as to the suitability of Rider's facilities have been addressed through continued projects like new flooring and acoustical treatment for Gill Chapel, the renovation of the SRC Seminar Room as a rehearsal space for opera, and the creation of a music computer lab in the Fine Arts Building. In 2023, Rider University discontinued Westminster Choir College’s separate commencement ceremony; however, the event has continued under the designation of a “Chapel Service.” That same year, Rider also ceased issuing diplomas bearing the Westminster Choir College name, despite earlier assurances that the name would continue to appear on graduates’ diplomas. As of 2026, Rider University has begun reissuing diplomas for graduates from that period to once again reflect the Westminster Choir College name. As of February 2023, the Princeton campus is still being used by Westminster Conservatory (the University's community music school), for outside rentals, and for a small number of Westminster Choir College rehearsals and performances. Rider University has also rented the parking lot to Princeton Council, garnering roughly $2000 per month. The Princeton Town Council has moved to purchase the campus via eminent domain, circumventing two lawsuits. As of April 2025, the township has purchased the property by Eminent Domain and are determining the campus’s future. In January 2025, four-time Grammy-winning alumnus Donald Nally was named Westminster's Director of Choral Studies. In that capacity he conducts Westminster Choir and Westminster Symphonic Choir and leads the graduate conducting program. In November 2025, Westminster Choir College announced a partnership with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), an internationally recognized music examination and certification organization. Through the agreement, Westminster began accepting ABRSM Fellowship (FRSM) diplomas for transfer credit toward certain graduate programs, as well as ABRSM Grade 8 examinations for general elective credit for undergraduate non-music majors. The partnership was presented as a means of expanding access for advanced musicians and strengthening Westminster’s international engagement. In December 2025, Westminster Choir College administrators circulated a message to alumni reaffirming the institution’s commitment to Westminster’s traditions and identity under Rider University’s new leadership. The communication announced that diplomas would once again bear the name “Westminster Choir College,” and that graduates from 2022 to 2025 would be eligible to receive reprinted diplomas reflecting that name. The message also noted that Westminster Conservatory had been placed under the leadership of Westminster’s Senior Associate Dean, that Westminster merchandise bearing the lyre logo had become available through the university bookstore, and that the former Princeton campus would be used for alumni events and student performances with the cooperation of the Municipality of Princeton. Additionally, the email outlined renewed recruitment efforts, continued observance of long-standing traditions such as Readings and Carols and Alumni Week, and the restoration of academic regalia and the Westminster gonfalon at the Westminster Chapel Service. University President John Loyack was quoted as expressing a commitment to reimagining Westminster’s future and engaging alumni in a task force intended to chart the college’s long-term direction. As of 2026, a small number of concerts, events, and rehearsals have begun to take place once again on the Princeton campus. ==Grammy Awards==