Janet Westrick
The Founder of Princeton Girlchoir and the inspiration behind the launching of Westrick Music Academy, Janet Westrick, died on March 13 in New Mexico. She was 84.
Born in Hamilton, Ohio, the life-long musician learned to play the piano at age 9 and continued to hone her gift for music throughout her life. She arrived in Princeton in 1976.
Westrick taught piano lessons out of the home and played for the Lutheran Church Prince of Peace, until 1983, when she was given the opportunity to teach music at Princeton Day School.
She went on to become the choir director of the middle school and was also named chair of the Music and Performing Arts Department. She also worked continuously as a church musician, playing piano and organ to accompany services as well as directing church choirs.
In 1989 Westrick attended a performance by the American Boy Choir. She felt that she knew girls who could perform like this and she put an ad in the paper to see if local girls would be interested in joining a group to sing and perform under her choral direction. The response was immediate. She selected 27 girls after intensive auditions, and the Princeton Girlchoir was born. The Princeton Girlchoir grew into an organization of several performing and training choirs and they traveled and performed extensively throughout Europe, Canada and the USA. The mission of the PGC is: “to provide excellence in choral education and performance opportunities, while inspiring confidence, character, and a lifelong love of making music together.”
Westrick continued to grow and inspire the Girlchoir until 2009, its 20th anniversary, when she retired and became artistic director emerita.
In 2017, after the close of the American Boy Choir, the Princeton Girlchoir decided to welcome the boys who had been singing with the American Boy Choir. With the inclusion of the boys, the organization was renamed the Westrick Music Academy, after its founder, Jan Westrick.
In 2014 Westrick relocated to New Mexico, where she sang with various choral groups and directed choirs at senior-living facilities until the early stages of Alzheimer’s interfered.
A service for Westrick will be held on Sunday, June 30, at 4 p.m. at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 177 Princeton Hightstown Road, West Windsor. All are welcome to attend. Memorial contributions should be made to the Westrick Music Academy, 231 Clarksville Road, Suite 8, West Windsor. Visit westrickmusic.org.
Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in economics who spent 24 years on the faculty of Princeton University, died on March 27 at the age of 90.
Kahneman came to Princeton in 1993, having previously worked at Hebrew University, the University of British Columbia, and the University of California-Berkeley. He transferred to emeritus status in 2007. He was known for teaching Psychology 101, “Introduction to Psychology,” and also developed the first psychology for public policy course offered by the School of Public and International Affairs.
He was the author of the best-selling book “Thinking Fast and Slow,” published in 2011, as well as “Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment,” published in 2021. President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
Kahneman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and studied psychology and mathematics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, then earned a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley in 1961.
Together with Amos Tversky of Stanford University, Kahneman pioneered the field of behavioral economics by applying cognitive psychology to economic analysis. Their work on human decision making and judgement has influenced fields from finance to politics to medicine and earned Kahneman the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics (Tversky died in 1996).
In an obituary published on Princeton University’s website, Princeton President Chris Eisgruber stated: “Danny Kahneman changed how we understand rationality and its limits. His scholarship pushed the frontiers of knowledge, inspired generations of students, and influenced leaders and thinkers throughout the world.”
