page_title: Westminster Choir College
section_title: 1920–1932: Presbyterian beginnings to the creation of a college
hierarchical_section_title: Westminster Choir College / History / 1920–1932: Presbyterian beginnings to the creation of a college
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Der weltberühmte Dayton-Westminster-Chor aus Amerika gastiert zum erstenmal in der Philharmonie in Berlin! Der weltberühmte Dayton-Westminster-Chor nach seinem ersten Konzert in der Philharmonie in Berlin. Vorn Mitte die Präsidentin des Chors Mrs. H.E. Talbot, rechts daneben der amerikanische Botschafter in Berlin Dr. Gould Shourmann, links neben ihr der Dirigent des Chors Dr. John Finley Williamson.
context_page_description: Westminster Choir College is a residential conservatory of music located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Westminster Choir College educates students at the undergraduate and graduate levels for musical careers in music education, voice performance, piano performance, organ performance, pedagogy, music theory and composition, conducting, sacred music, and arts management; professional training in musical skills with an emphasis on performance is complemented by studies in the liberal arts. All students study with Westminster's voice faculty, the largest voice faculty in the world. The school's proximity to New York City and Philadelphia provides students with easy access to the musical resources of both cities.
  It is currently a part of Rider University, however, ongoing lawsuits seek to end Westminster's affiliation.
context_section_description: 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.
  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. Years later the Choir also sang for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. 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, it 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 Herbert Hoover.
  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.
caption: Dayton Westminster Choir at Berliner Philharmonie in 1929
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