Philadelphia based contemporary vocal ensemble The Crossing, under the direction of Donald Nally, releases "Rising w/ The Crossing," an uplifting offering that serves as an offering of hope amidst a pandemic as well as a journey through the ensemble's projects over the last several years. Including music by Joby Talbot, Eriks Ešenvalds, Dieterich Buxtehude, Paul Fowler, Alex Berko, Ted Hearne, Santa Ratniece, and David Lang's hauntingly topical "protect yourself from infection," which sets texts from a 1918 U.S. government document, with the names of Philadelphians who fell victim to the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Fire in my mouth, a major world premiere from Bang on a Can composer Julia Wolfe, tells the story of New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: a 1911 tragedy that led to significant changes in labor laws. Representing the nearly 150 women lost in that fire are 36 women of The Crossing, with the New York Philharmonic and Young People’s Chorus of New York, Jaap van Zweden, conducting.

nominated for 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Composition

by The Crossing, Donald Nally, conductor. Innova Records.

Voyages (1994) Robert Convery
Voyages, Cantata No. 2, Op. 41 (2018) Benjamin C.S. Boyle
nominated for 2020 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance

by The Crossing, Donald Nally, conductor. Innova Records.

nominated for 2020 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
The Arc in the Sky, Kile Smith’s 2018 setting of journal entries and poems by Robert Lax (1915–2000) is an epic, hour-long tour de force of thought and feeling that traverses topics ranging from Louis Armstrong to Jack Kerouac, and from Jerusalem to the shores of the island of Patmos. The Arc in the Sky marks Smith’s sixth commission from The Crossing, which has also recorded his Where Flames a Word and Vespers. Premiered at The Month of Moderns 2018, The Crossing’s annual festival of new music for choir, Smith’s composition for unaccompanied choir is comprised of three major sections, beginning with the ecstasy of “Jazz,” for Robert Lax, a metaphor for life born of his early days in New York City; the extraordinary conclusion to the third movement “Cherubim & Palm Trees” is like a revival meeting. The middle section, “Praise,” celebrates the spirituality found in both the simple and expansive; the panoramic temple and the little things. “Arc” ends the work by hearkening back to the emotion of the opening, a culmination of Lax’s personal and poetic voyage.

by The Crossing, Donald Nally, conductor. Parma/Navona Records.

Featuring works by Edie Hill, Gregory W. Brown, James Shrader, Bruce Babcock, Jonathan Sheffer, and Christopher J. Hoh

Zealot Canticles by Lansing McLoskey (2017), texts by Wole Soyinka. World premiere by The Crossing, Donald Nally, conductor. Innova Records.

winner - 2019 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance

Songs based on myths and folk tales from Scotland, Iceland, Alaska, and New England, written and performed by women. Works by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, Kamala Sankaram, Emily Lau, and Melissa Dunphy.

Piffaro's 30th Anniversary Celebration from live concert recordings, 2005-2015. Piffaro Recordings, 2015.

Solo movement: Track #20: "A warning to all false traitors"

A new recording of world premieres addressing a topic of our national discourse: diaspora. These two strikingly diverse, yet equally compelling unaccompanied compositions were commissioned for The Crossing’s Month of Moderns festival and premiered in June 2017.

small ensemble: Track 8 - Questions for a Disincorporation/Atlantis

Innova Records, 2018.

Choral Works of Edie Hill. Navona Records, 2017.

Solo movement: "Cancion de el alma"

A two-disc set.

Seven of our foremost composers have written responses to the seven cantatas of Dieterich Buxtehude's iconic oratorio Membra Jesu nostri (1680). The result is a collection of diverse contemplations on how we consider the suffering of others, from Hans Thomalla, Caroline Shaw, Lewis Spratlan, David T. Little, Santa Ratniece, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen.

A major event bringing together internationally recognized ensembles and composers in a single, unique project.

With The Crossing and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)

Solo movement: Anna Thorvaldsdottir's "Ad genua."

As one of the most socially conscious young composers in contemporary classical music, Ted Hearne has drawn on a multitude of influences to create Sound from the Bench—his first project for Cantaloupe Music. The title piece also features the edgy electric guitars of Dither’s Taylor Levine and James Moore, as well as the rhythmic flourishes of percussionist Ron Wiltrout. Taken as a whole, this is some of Hearne’s most wide-ranging and adventurous work—a siren call that resonates with unusual passion in these politically charged times. Clocking in at 40 minutes, this probing exploration of the Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision is brilliantly scored for choir, electric guitars, and drums/percussion. Hearne lifts texts from Jena Osman's Corporate Relations, a collection of poems that follows the historical trajectory of corporate personhood in the United States. The five movements combine language taken from landmark Supreme Court Cases with words from ventriloquism textbooks. As the piece progresses, the human voices are "thrown" and thrown over by the mechanical and menacing voices of the electric guitars. Says Hearne, "I strive toward a polyphony of oppositional voices and perspectives in my music, and to bring the chaotic forces of life into the work itself. It was this impulse, and the unabashedly political tone of Osman's poetry, that made me want to set some part of Corporate Relations to music.” Sound from the Bench shares a program with three other recent pieces by Hearne that, in the words of The Crossing's conductor, Donald Nally, are “fundamentally about asking questions—questions about the world we live in, about art, and about language and music.” Hearne’s virtuosic and hauntingly beautiful musical settings entice, repulse, and surprise in turns, as he interweaves texts from the Iraq War Logs ('Ripple'), Bill Moyer’s 2009 interview with The Wire creator David Simon ('Privilege'), and the 2013 case of rape by high school students in Steubenville, Ohio ('Consent'). The Crossing has recorded these four works for release on Cantaloupe Music, on an album produced by Nick Tipp and titled after the anchoring work.

Cantata for choir and orchestra by Lewis Spratlan, with The Crossing and Network for New Music, conducted by Donald Nally. Innova Records, 2014.

Solo movement: Track #8, "Stepping Backward"

A chamber opera with libretto from the Bhagavad Ghita, by Douglas Cuomo. Innova Recordings, 2008.

Featured throughout in a quartet with Anonymous 4 members Susan Hellauer and Jacqueline Horner.

2018 GRAMMY WINNER: Best Choral Performance. Premiered by The Crossing and PRISM in July 2014, Gavin Bryars' The Fifth Century is an elegiac setting of meditations of 17th-century metaphysical poet Thomas Traherne - a true magnum opus from one of the world's great composers. The New York Times called the work a ''poignant lament'' and the performance ''superb'' and ''eloquent.'' With Gavin's beautiful Petrarch settings, Two Love Songs for women's choir, this album is a fitting soundtrack for a wounded world.

''Eternity magnifies our joys exceedingly.''

World premiere of a Vespers service written by Kile Smith for Piffaro, the Renaissance Band and The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally. Navona Records, 2009.

Featured solos:

• Track #5, Psalm 27
• Track #11, Vater unser

New choral works for women by David Lang, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Paul Fowler, and William Brooks. With The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally. Innova Recordings, 2013.

Featured solo - Track #2, Mens mea

John Luther Adam's 32-part, hour-long piece, a unique aural kaleidoscope in which four choirs surround the audience, their canons unfolding across landscapes of time, as the “wind” swirls magically around the room. Cantaloupe Records, 2017.

On the Transmigration of Souls (2005 Grammy Award winner, Best Classical Album) by John Adams with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Choral Artists. Nonesuch Records, 2004.

Words Adorned is a multimedia project featuring newly commissioned works: Embroidered Verses by Kareem Roustom and Of Nights and Solace by Kinan Abou-afach, performed by The Crossing, soloist Dalal Abu Amneh, and Al-Bustan Takht Ensemble.

It Is Time: a cappella choral works by David Shapiro, Kile Smith, Paul Fowler, Frank Havrøy, Erhard Karkoschka & Kirsten Broberg. With The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally. Navona Records, 2011.

Featured solo - Track #8, Sie kämmt ihr Haar (Wiegenlied)

Works for chorus and organ for Christmastide by James MacMillan, Andrew Gant, Edwin Fissinger, Gabriel Jackson, Benjamin C.S. Boyle, and Zachary Wardsworth. With The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally. Innova Recordings, 2013.

A backyard opera in one act by Alice Parker with Melodious Accord. Gothic Records, 2007.

Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” by Gustav Mahler with The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Singers Chorale. Ondine Records, 2009.

A cantata, two suites, and eight spirituals in choral settings by Alice Parker. With Melodious Accord. Gothic Records, 2004.

The Philadelphia Singers in a historic recording of Randall Thompson's Requiem. Naxos Records, 2016.

Pre-order an album at the Philadelphia Singers' website.