Rider University to keep Westminster Choir College in Princeton, partners with Kaiwen Education, establishes WCCAC

PRINCETON, N.J. — After an exhaustive due diligence process, Rider University has selected Kaiwen Education from among approximately 280 candidates to keep the financially failing Westminster Choir College (WCC) in Princeton.

Additionally, Rider has established Westminster Choir College Acquisition Corporation (WCCAC), and appointed Larry J. Livingston as interim president of this New Jersey non-profit that will assume operation of WCC next July.

Livingston, who has been project manager of the corporation, also has an extensive track record as several music schools’ administrator. He is optimistic about his new role.

“Actually what excites me is not so much being named interim president, though I am honored by the WCCAC’s Board of Trustees confidence, but rather the prospect of helping WCC, a venerable and first-class music school, enter into an even brighter future,” states Livingston.

He believes WCC will evolve and prosper with Kaiwen Education as a partner.

Kaiwen Education is a financially stable, exceptional educational company located in the Haidian District of Beijing, China. It presently manages two prominent K-12 schools for serious and talented youth.

“There is no reason that this transaction should do other than create a bright future for WCC,” writes Livingston.

He states, “Kaiwen is a well-funded, dynamic entity, financially healthy and therefore ideally positioned to help WCC grow and flourish.”

Kaiwen is also growing and planning to open several more international school campuses. Its premise is based on educating young people to become open-minded, inquiring, courageous, reflective, principled, and caring citizens.

Kaiwen Education focuses on humanities, science, arts, and sports. It believes quality is priority and maintains excellence.

It does this by stressing the equal importance of educating the mind and training the body. Thus, Kaiwen campuses feature exceptional athletic and music performance facilities.

Therefore, Kaiwen is ideally positioned to fulfill its mission to sustain and grow Westminster Choir College’s reputation as a world-class institution while maintaining it as an artistically pre-eminent, academically rigorous, and fiscally sound institution.

Both Rider and PriceWaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance spent more than a year undertaking intricate and thorough diligence to focus on applicants that would keep WCC in Princeton.

They chose Kaiwen because it would complete this transaction. Also because of their sound fiscal state, experience operating prominent schools for talented youth, and their motivation to move Westminster forward.

Although Kaiwen does not have experience managing a higher education institution, “there is an abundance of higher education expertise available both within the WCC community, as well as domestically and globally,” states Livingston.

He also comments that, “working together with all WCC constituents, Kaiwen is determined to help WCC improve its fiscal health, to see it evolve as an even stronger music school and one which can stand on its own solid financial footing.”