The Crossing has been callled "Extraordinary" by The New York Times, "ardently angelic' by the Los Angeles Times, and "something of a miracle" by The Philadelphia Inquirer. This 24-member, professional chamber ensemble sang out from the WRTI 90.1 Performance Studio on June 14, 2018.
Watch the performance recorded live on the WRTI Facebook Page!
Conducted by Donald Nally, The Crossing is committed to presenting and recording new, substantial works, most of which address social issues, and has presented over 70 world premieres since its founding in 2005.
Since 2009, The Crossing has presented the Month of Moderns, an annual festival in early summer featuring three programs of new music. Coming up on June 30, at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, is the third program in this year's festival featuring a world premiere by Kile Smith, The Arc in the Sky. More information about this concert.
At WRTI, the choir performed a sampling of works by several of the composers represented in this year's festival.
PROGRAM:
David Lang: last spring (2015)
Alex Berko: Lincoln (2018)
Robert Convery: Voyages (1994), selected movements
The Crossing has released 14 recordings. It won a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance in 2018 for Gavin Bryars: The Fifth Century, and was nominated the year before for its recording of Thomas Lloyd's, Bonhoeffer. Among its other honors, The Crossing with Donald Nally is the American Composers Forum's 2017 Champion of New Music.
Donald Nally is artistic director of The Crossing and the John W. Beattie Chair of Music at Northwestern University. He has served as chorus master at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and, for many seasons, at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Donald Nally is the recipient of the 2017 Michael Korn Founders Award and the 2012 Louis Botto Award from Chorus America. His ensembles have twice won Margaret Hillis Award for Excellence in Choral Music: in 2002 with the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and in 2015 with The Crossing. This season he is a Resident Visiting Artist at the Park Avenue Armory.
