Danielle Sinclair

The Westminster Community Orchestra, conducted by Ruth Ochs, will present their 11th annual “Holiday Favorites and Sing-along” on Wednesday, December 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Hillman Hall, in the Cullen Center, on the Westminster campus, Walnut Lane.

While the performance is free, the orchestra will continue its long-standing tradition of accepting free-will cash donations at the door to benefit and be distributed to area food pantries and service organizations. Audience members requiring seating assistance should arrive at 7 p.m.

The performance will feature holiday favorites such as Berlin’s “White Christmas,” Chase’s Around the World at Holiday Time, and “The Holly and the Ivy.” Westminster Conservatory faculty member Danielle Sinclair will join the orchestra for Yon’s Gesù Bambino. The concert will also include Nikolai’s Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor, as well as orchestra member Beth Gaynor LaPat’s Chanukah Songs. The audience is invited to sing along with Anderson’s popular A Christmas Festival.

Sinclair has performed with orchestras throughout the country and in numerous operatic roles. She was the grand prize winner of the Opera at Florham Guild Competition, performing on the Apollo Muses Concert Series to critical acclaim. Locally, Sinclair performs frequently in the Westminster Conservatory Faculty Recital Series and with the Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs. She has appeared with both New York City Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

Now in her 19th season as conductor and music director of the Westminster Community Orchestra, Ochs has led the group in performances of major orchestral and choral-orchestral works, including symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich,and Tchaikovsky. Under her leadership, the orchestra continues to feature ensembles and soloists from the Westminster Conservatory and highlight works by local and under-represented composers.

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