Joe Miller, Westminster Choir College’s new choral director, strives to maintain sacred and spiritual traditions while moving into the future with fresh vision.
By: Susan Van Dongen
When asked if he is aware that the position as director of choral activities at Westminster Choir College of Rider University is touted as the nation’s most prestigious choral conducting job, Joe Miller pauses to frame his words modestly.
"I would say that it is one of the most interesting appointments and that also Westminster is a (singular) place," Mr. Miller says. "There’s no place else in the world that does what we do. It’s an entire school dedicated to choral arts that’s the core of the school. From that standpoint, it is a coveted place to be for choral conductors, where this work is the heart and soul of what is going on."
Last spring, Mr. Miller was named to his new position at Westminster after a three-year international search. He follows in the footsteps of Joseph Flummerfelt, who served in the position for 33 years. It could be a bit intimidating, but Mr. Miller says it feels more like a mentorship for him.
"Joe and I are different people but we come from similar grounding in the traditional choral world so it feels familiar, following his legacy," he says. "It seems familiar and comfortable to me."
With a nod to Mr. Flummerfelt, Mr. Miller has programmed Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem to make his conducting debut with the elite 32-voice Westminster Choir. The concert also to feature works by Poulenc and Bach will be held at Bristol Chapel on the college’s Princeton campus Nov. 11. The new conductor points out that the Requiem was one of Mr. Flummerfelt’s favorite works, and it shares a tradition with the school itself.
"This piece has been part of the fabric of this school," Mr. Miller says. "But it’s also a piece that I continue to come back to in my life at important points. All of these things came together how I cherished the piece and the fact that it’s an important part of the school.
"As for me, I’ve sung the Requiem several times and with each of my positions, at Western Michigan and Cal State, I’ve programmed it in the first years," he continues. "Even though the Requiem is about endings, to me it’s about beginnings."
Before his appointment at Westminster, Mr. Miller was director of choral studies, professor of music and voice area chairman at Western Michigan University School of Music in Kalamazoo. With the Western Michigan Chorale, he received a number of awards, including the Silver Medal at the 2005 European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in Varna, Bulgaria, and the Grand Prize at the 2002 Robert Schumann International Choral Competition in Zwickau, Germany. He has also served as director of choral and vocal activities at California State University in Stanislaus and artistic director/conductor of the Stockton Chorale in Stockton, Calif.
So there’s been plenty of excitement throughout his career, but not quite the intensity Mr. Miller is already feeling in Central Jersey.
"Just by being closer to the major metropolitan areas I can sense it," he says. "The pace of my life hasn’t really changed but the electricity in it is certainly changing. There’s so much creative energy in this region and that was one of the attractive qualities, one of the reasons I wanted to come here to be part of that great wealth of creative energy."
A native of Knoxville, Tenn., Mr. Miller will oversee Westminster’s extensive choral program, one that includes eight ensembles. His inaugural season at Westminster will include performances in Princeton and at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A as well as a concert tour of the southern United States. He will also collaborate with Harry Bicket to prepare the Westminster Symphonic Choir for a series of performances of Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Maestro Bicket.
Westminster’s 2006-2007 choral year was launched with a recent performance by the 150-voice Symphonic Choir at Saint Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Princeton. The concert, which drew hundreds of people, was centered around Jonathan Dove’s The Passing of the Year, a song cycle for double chorus.
For the Nov. 11 concert, Mr. Miller has made the Duruflé Requiem the centerpiece, but has also programmed some interesting contemporary works for the evening of music. He is particularly excited to present A Curse Upon Iron by Estonian composer Veljo Tormis.
"It’s unlike anything else on the program, it’s rhythmic, tribal and earthy in nature," Mr. Miller says. "It features accompaniment by a ‘shaman drum,’ and the poetry is based on the ‘Kalevala,’ the Finnish epic poem, which people might relate to ‘The Chronicles of Narnia.’ The poetry is about the beginning, the creation of iron and all the destructive things that have come since. Iron has all this power and has certainly been used in destructive ways."
It’s interesting how the program runs the gamut from Duruflé’s mystical Catholicism to earth-based spirituality and Scandinavian mythology.
"All the works are spiritual and that’s important to me," Mr. Miller says.
Mr. Miller earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in choral conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music education and voice from the University of Tennessee. In addition to his work at Western Michigan and California State University, Mr. Miller has conducted choirs in both national and international festivals, and he has served as guest conductor for numerous all-state and honors choirs. A respected solo artist, he has performed with orchestras and in recital throughout the Midwest and in California.
In a recent speech to the Chorus Management Institute, Mr. Miller said, "Choral music in the United States has seen unprecedented growth in the past several decades. The influence of our past leaders is part of our fabric, but we must seize this time to create a new vision based on the foundation that has been laid before us. We must keep the traditions but be willing to change in order to build a vision for the future."
Keeping the traditions of Westminster alive while taking them into the future is part of Mr. Miller’s vision for the school, "to take the things that are part of the fabric that have made Westminster such a strong place and continue with them, but give them a new life," he says.
One of the most important strands of that fabric is the tradition of sacred music and spirituality.
"Westminster was founded as a sacred music school and that’s only one part of it today, but it’s still an important part to what we do here," Mr. Miller says. "To me, there’s this spiritual component to choral singing. All music and art has its own realm of the spirit. But there’s something about the community that is formed when you have people singing together. It creates cohesion, a communication between people that transcends words it really does lift people.
"All art can do this, but choral art focuses on this spiritual aspect so much," he continues. "It’s inherent in the art form. That’s why I try to look for those key elements in the music that I choose. If it embraces the singers in this way it will also embrace the audience."
Joe Miller will conduct the Westminster Choir in an evening of music at Bristol
Chapel, Westminster Choir College, 101 Walnut Lane, Princeton, Nov. 11, 8 p.m.
Tickets cost $15, $10 seniors/students. For information, call (609) 921-2663.
On the Web: www.rider.edu/arts

