The Princeton Girlchoir

The mission of the Princeton Girlchoir is to provide excellence in choral education and performance opportunities, while inspiring confidence, character, and a lifelong love of making music together.

The girls and young women of the Princeton Girlchoir embrace the opportunity to develop their musical, interpersonal, and performing skills, thus setting the stage for a lifelong passion for singing.

What Founder and Artistic Director Jan Westrick started in 1989 as an after-school activity for a small number of girls interested in choral music has grown into the area's premier training and performance choir for over 200 girls ages 8 to 18. To date, Princeton Girlchoir's alumnae number almost 400 young women, many who continue to sing in their schools, churches, communities, and on stages around the world.

Princeton Girlchoir exposes girls to a variety of musical genres, conductors and composers. While honing their musicianship skills, they are able to befriend new girls who sing, enjoy professional performance opportunities, and travel the world.

Princeton Girlchoir includes five auditioned choirs beginning with the youngest preparatory choirs, the Grace Notes and the Semi-Tones. The Concert Choir, its select Ensemble, and the Cantores, are for older, more advanced singers. Choristers from towns throughout Central New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania come together each week from September through May to study and perform choral music of the highest caliber, covering all genres and periods.

Members of the Concert Choir have the opportunity to travel each summer on the annual Concert Choir Summer Tour. These experiences have taken the girls to various parts of the United States, Europe, and Canada. In the summer of 2009, the Concert Choir Tour Ensemble will travel south of the border to Mexico to participate in the Festival Internacional de Coro de Niños en México in Colonial San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato.

Previous tours include:
2008 – New Orleans: Crescent City Choral Festival, under the direction of Paul Caldwell
2007 – Ireland
2006 – Oregon: Pacific International Children's Choir Festival (PICCFEST), under the direction of Henry Leck
2005 – Germany and the Czech Republic. The choir had the honor of singing for the President and Prime Minister of the Czech Republic at a special Independence Day celebration at the residence of the United States Ambassador in the beautiful city of Prague. They also sang with local choirs in Prague and several German cities including a performance of Carmina Burana at the Lingnerschloss in Dresden.
2004 – Hawaii: Pacific Rim Children’s Choral Festival
2003 – Newfoundland, Canada: Festival 500 Sharing the Voices
2002 – Canada: Niagara International Music Festival
2001 – Italy: Sixth Annual Tuscany Children’s Festival
2000 – Florida: Walt Disney World’s Millennium Celebration
1999 – France and Spain: Festival Internacional de Música de Cantonigròs
1998 – Washington, D.C. & Williamsburg, VA
1997 – England: Shrewsbury Music Festival and Bournemouth Music Makers Festival
1996 – U.S. Midwest
1995 – Italy: First Annual Tuscany Children’s Festival

In addition to its two major annual concerts at Richardson Auditorium and the Concert Choir tour, the directors of The Princeton Girlchoir continually seek out performance opportunities to provide exciting educational and culturally-rich musical experiences for the girls. These events have taken them to:

• Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center to perform with the American Boychoir and cellist
Yo-Yo Ma in the North American Premiere of conductor Tan Dun’s Symphony 1997
• New York City’s Rockefeller Center to sing in front of the world famous Christmas tree on NBC’s “Weekend Today Show”
• The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) to perform with the Newark Boys Chorus
• Twice to the American Boychoir’s National Choral Conference as its featured guest choir
• The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Eastern Regional Convention in Baltimore.
• EMI Publishing’s holiday party at Rockefeller Center in New York City
• Yogi Berra’s Birthday Bash

Other collaborations include performances with

• Philadelphia Girlchoir
• Florida’s Singing Sons Boychoir
• Pueri Gaudentes Boy Choir of Prague
• Kinderchor der Singakademie of Dresden, Germany
• Madchenchor Girlchoir of Halle-Neustadt, Germany
• Les Petits Chanteurs de St. André de Colmar of France
• Princeton Pro Musica
• Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey
• Princeton University Orchestra
• Maplewood Glee Club.

Throughout the year, the choirs have performed at community events such as:

• Arts Council of Princeton’s Communiversity
• Drumthwacket Foundation Gala
• Morven Museum and Gardens Festival of Trees
• Annual Tree Lighting of Palmer Square
• Dedication ceremonies of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
• 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Grounds for Sculpture
• Mercer County Bar Association Law Day Luncheon
• Annual Holiday Luncheon at the Princeton Present Day Club for the Princeton YWCA Grad Group
• Various private and corporate events