The Crossing bio
The Crossing is a professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally that sings only new music, bringing together creative teams to imagine, present, and record new, substantial works for choir that look at the world and our place in it. Often using a journalistic approach to text curation, The Crossing commissions music that explores and expands ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir; many of its nearly 200 commissioned premieres address social, environmental, and political issues. With a commitment to recording, The Crossing has issued 39 albums, winning four Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance (2018, 2019, 2023, 2025) and 11 Grammy nominations in 10 consecutive years.
The Crossing collaborates with some of the world’s most accomplished ensembles, artists, and venues: Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, Walt Disney Concert Hall, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Allora & Calzadilla, Bang on a Can, Klockriketeatern, International Contemporary Ensemble, Cleveland Museum of Art, Menil Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Big Sing (formerly Koorbiënnale), Finnish National Opera, Kennedy Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The choir has recently held residencies at Dartmouth, University of Chicago, University of Iowa, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, and Yale, Harvard, Duke, and Northwestern universities.
The Crossing’s tours have taken it to the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Gabriela Ortiz’s Revolución diamantina; Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam with Shara Nova’s Titration; Cincinnati, Ithaca, and the University of Chicago’s Neubauer Collegium with commissioned works of Jennifer Higdon, Caroline Shaw, Edie Hill, and Ayanna Woods; Haarlem (the Netherlands) and Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with Ted Hearne’s Farming, which premiered outdoors on a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania; Helsinki and the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm with Robert Maggio’s Aniara; Carnegie Hall with the world premiere of John Luther Adams’s Vespers of the Blessed Earth with The Philadelphia Orchestra; Lincoln Center with two works of Julia Wolfe with the New York Philharmonic—Fire in my mouth (2019) and unEarth (2023); and Lincoln, New York, Philadelphia, Iowa City, and Des Moines with David Lang’s poor hymnal, which will go to Greenville, South Carolina, and the Big Ears festival in Knoxville later this season, then premiere as a staged work in January 2027 at the University of Richmond and UNC–Chapel Hill.
The Crossing with Nally was Musical America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year, the American Composers Forum’s 2017 Champion of New Music, and the winner of the 2015 Margaret Hillis Award for Artistic and Organizational Achievement from Chorus America.