Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, has been combining scholarship and professional training in music for over 60 years, and during that time the mixed, 40-voice Westminster Choir has set the standard for choral excellence. Forming the core of the 200-voice Westminster Symphonic Choir, the Choir has performed with every internationally known conductor in the last 50 years and has performed with the NY Philharmonic alone over 300 times. Internationally recognized conductor Joseph Flummerfelt has directed the Choir since 1979, and arranged several of the songs on this CD. There are 17 classic a cappella tunes, and picking favorites was not easy, as each song hits us right in the nostalgia bone and tugs 2 or 3 heartstrings. 'Danny Boy,' 'Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair,' 'Annie Laurie,' 'Turtle Dove,' 'Old Folks at Home,' Beautiful Dreamer,' 'Loch Lomond,' 'Flow Gently, Sweet Afton,' 'Shenandoah'Éthey're all winners, sung by one of the best choirs of all time.

Westminster Choir College is a center for music studies in Princeton, NJ, with a four-year music college and graduate school which prepares men and women for careers as music leaders. The 40 mixed-voice Westminster Choir, part of the 200-voice Symphonic Choir, is internationally renowned, as is Joseph Flummerfelt, who besides being choral activities director at the College, is Chorus Master of the NY Philharmonic. 20 songs, all organ accompanied, but the focus is on the perfect, soaring voices. 'When In Our Music God Is Glorified,' 'Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones,' 'Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah,' 'Let All The World In Every Corner Sing,' Randall Thompson's 'The Last Words of David,' 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' 'All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night' and 'Old Hundredth Psalm Tune' are favorites, reveling in the magnificence of this powerful, traditional church music!

Director and conductor of The 37 mixed-voice Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ since 1971, Joseph Flummerfelt has made the Choir synonymous with musical excellence, working with eminent conductors and performing with the world's major orchestras. 'Singing for Pleasure' is all about Brahms, and has 23 pieces, 9 movements of 'Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 52, the 3 sweet a cappella movements of 'Deutsche Volkslieder,' 5 movements of 'Zigeunerlieder, Op. 103,' 'O Heiland, Reiss Die Himmel Auf, Op. 74, No. 2,' Four Quartets, and Neue Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 65.' Most songs are piano-accompanied. The Westminster is the perfect choir for this music, with the strength and passion for a dramatic piece like 'No. 5 Braunner Bursche fuhrt zum Tanze,' and the perfect harmonic pitch for pieces like 'In stiller Nacht' and 'No. 7 Kommt dir manchmal in den Sinn.' A lovely collection of lesser-known works by the master composer.