“Audiences float out of [Nally’s] concerts on a choral cloud.” Philadelphia Inquirer
“I wanted to ask questions for which there are no easy answers. Maybe no answers at all.” Donald Nally
A quote from Virgil’s Aeneid serves as an apt title for an epic aural voyage that explores the timeless themes of nationalism and war while navigating personal stories of joy and despair. Grammy-winning choir The Crossing brings to life music by twelve contemporary composers whose work examines victory and loss across national and personal borders.
Of Arms and the Man presents an enticing program of choral pieces performed by the 24-voice ensemble under the direction of conductor Donald Nally. In keeping with The Crossing’s mission of presenting new works for choir, the program features a world premiere from 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist Ted Hearne — the nation’s preeminent composer of works of social advocacy — and a rare live performance of David Lang’s “depart.”
Of arms and the man I sing, who, forced by fate
And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate,
Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore…
For what offense the Queen of Heav’n began
To persecute so brave, so just a man;…
Can heav’nly minds such high resentment show,
Or exercise their spite in human woe?
—Virgil
$39 general / $27.30 members
$15 student + 25-and-under
$2 FringeAccess members
The Choir Katy Avery, Julie Bishop, Karen Blanchard, Rebecca Myers, Alissa Ruth, Rebecca Siler, Joanna Gates, Heidi Kurtz, Chelsea Lyons, Becky Oehlers, Elisa Sutherland, Shari Wilson, Steven Bradshaw, Ryan Fleming, Michael Jones, Daniel O’Dea, James Reese, Robert Eisentrout, Daniel Schwartz, Colin Dill, Will Doreza, Steven Hyder, Daniel Spratlan, Mark Livshits Cellos Alexander Hersh, Thomas Mesa, Arlen Hlusko Conductor Donald Nally Accompanist Laura Ward
Photos by Becky Oehlers Photography
Festival Co-Producers: Tom & Linda McCarthy
Program
Of Arms and the Man
with Thomas Mesa, Arlen Hlusko & Alexander Hersh, cellos
Ted Hearne, courtesy of the artist.
Ted Hearne A world premiere
David Lang depart
Gabriel Jackson Our flags are wafting in hope and grief
Kile Smith “Conversation in the Mountains” from Where flames a word
Louis Andriessen Ahania Weeping
Suzanne Giraud Johannisbaum
David Shapiro Sumptuous Planet
Sebastian Currier “Sanctus” from Night Mass
Gabriel Jackson Rigwreck
Benjamin CS Boyle Empire of Crystal
David Lang last spring
Toivo Tulev A child said, what is the grass?
About The Crossing
The Crossing is a professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. It is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir – most often addressing social issues – with the possibility of changing the way we think about writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir.
Highly sought-after for collaborative projects, The Crossing’s first such partnership was as the resident choir of the Spoleto Festival in Italy, in 2007. Since then, collaborators include the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), American Composers Orchestra, Network for New Music, Lyric Fest, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Beth Morrison Projects, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Mostly Mozart Festival, National Gallery of Art, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum, Institute for Advanced Study, Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, and Northwestern University. The Crossing holds an annual residency at the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center in Big Sky, Montana. The Crossing has presented more than 60 commissioned world premieres, including works by Michael Gordon, John Luther Adams, David Lang, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Gavin Bryars, Ted Hearne, Caroline Shaw, David T. Little, Robert Maggio, Gabriel Jackson, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, and Hans Thomalla.
With a commitment to recording its commissions, The Crossing has issued 14 releases, receiving a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance in 2018, its second nomination in as many years. The Crossing, with Donald Nally, is the American Composers Forum’s 2017 Champion of New Music. They are the recipients of the 2015 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, three ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, and the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award from Chorus America. crossingchoir.org
About Donald Nally
Donald Nally is artistic director at The Crossing. He has served as chorus master at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and for many seasons at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. He has also served as music director of Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble, chorus master at The Chicago Bach Project, and guest conductor throughout Europe and the United States, most notably with the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, thePhilharmonia Chorus (London), the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and the Latvian State Choir (Riga). Donald, with The Crossing, won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance with Gavin Bryars’ The Fifth Century.
Donald, with The Crossing, was named the American Composers Forum 2017 Champion of New Music; he received the 2017 Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art from Chorus America. He is the only conductor to have two ensembles receive the Margaret Hillis Award for Excellence in Choral Music: in 2002 with the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and in 2015 with The Crossing. Collaborations have included the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Park Avenue Armory, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, the Barnes Foundation, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The National Gallery of Art of Osaka (Japan), Lisson Gallery (London), the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), theAmerican Composers Orchestra, and The Big Sky Conservatory in Montana where The Crossing holds an annual residency.
Donald holds the John W. Beattie Chair in Music at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music where he is professor of conducting and director of choral organizations.
Interview with Donald Nally
FringeArts: What inspired the use of the Virgil quote as the title? Do you remember where you were when that idea came about?
Donald Nally: The Park Avenue Armory asked me to develop a program for their ornate historic reception rooms. Being the Armory, I got thinking about how the military has changed since those rooms were built; how it was a point of honor for the aristocracy that today mostly avoids it at all cost. So here are these beautiful rooms and they are a kind of monument to what we actually do in war: rich older people throw young people at a problem….So, we sing, and we do so about arms and about people: “Of arms and the man I sing.” And, it’s a journey, so the first line of the Aeneid captures the whole thing well. I liked the program so much I wanted to bring it to The Fringe because you don’t need elegant 19th-century rooms to ask these kinds of questions: life, war, wealth, death, purpose. In fact, the clarity of FringeArts Theater is going to be a great environment for this musical discussion.
FringeArts: What themes or qualities unite the pieces in this program?
Donald Nally: The concert takes a look at life and war and life during war from a number of angles. Some of it is national pride, some of it is grief, some of it is anger. Of course, I do not know quite what Ted’s new piece will be, but it’s going to fit into this overall theme of how we agree or disagree across nations and continents and what we’re actually doing when we act on those alliances or arguments.
FringeArts: Where does the program fit within The Crossing’s larger story and mission?
Donald Nally: We keep on keeping on with the topic of how we live our lives through the stories being told by composers; and, in doing so, we keep asking questions about what our art has to do with any of that? How do we present a work, what we do with our Voice, how do we combine all this in observing The Other? So, the stories on this choral recital directly reflec these questions.