photo: Becky Oehlers Photography
Donald Nally collaborates with creative artists, leading orchestras, and art museums to make new works for choir that address social and environmental issues. He has commissioned over 180 works and, with The Crossing, has 29 recordings, with two Grammy Awards and eight nominations. Nally has served as chorus master at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Recent projects have taken him to Stockholm, London, Osaka, Cleveland, Boston, Edmonton, Houston, Los Angeles, Helsinki, Haarlem, Riga, Los Angeles, and New York. His 72-chapter pandemic-time series Rising w/ The Crossing, has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR’s Performance Today; it is archived by The Library of Congress as a cultural artifact of our historical record. The 2022-2023 season will include collaborations with Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Ventura Festival, November Music in The Netherlands, the Baltic Sea Festival in Sweden, and TBA21 in Spain. Nally is the John W. Beattie Chair of Music and professor of choral studies at Northwestern University.
Albums
Titration
Release Date: April 28, 2023
Catalog Number: NV6504
Catalog Number: NV6504
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
TITRATION: a term used in chemistry to describe the process where two reagents are mixed drop by drop to avoid the explosive reaction that would occur from pouring them together quickly. Titration is also used to describe a therapeutic process in which one approaches trauma very slowly, “drop by drop,” so as to avoid unnecessary distress, flooding and potential re-traumatization. No title could be better fitting for Shara Nova’s new cycle of healing songs, recorded by The Crossing with conductor Donald Nally. TITRATION examines the experience of our own bodies, the capacity of our nervous systems, and the quest to identify and embrace our most difficult feelings. Styles converge, warm sounds emerge and voices soar next to laughter, humming, and the energy of Shara’s Indie band roots, with songs deeply inspired by Resmaa Menakem’s Somatic Abolitionist body of work and his call for communal practice. TITRATION offers a glimpse into various healing modalities while extending a hand of self-awareness to listeners alike.
Born
Release Date: August 12, 2022
Catalog Number: NV6449
Catalog Number: NV6449
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
Contemporary music needn’t sacrifice order and aesthetic appeal, even when it deals with complex issues. A glowing example of this is BORN: THE MUSIC OF EDIE HILL AND MICHAEL GILBERTSON, with conductor Donald Nally leading GRAMMY-winning professional chamber choir The Crossing on a breathtakingly beautiful expedition into themes of extinctions, relationships and their complexities, loss, and love.
Words Adorned
Release Date: July 9, 2021
Catalog Number: NV6356
Catalog Number: NV6356
21st Century
Vocal Music
Voice
The Grammy-winning professional chamber choir The Crossing, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, and Navona Records present WORDS ADORNED. Conducted by Donald Nally, with Takht musical direction by Hanna Khoury, the combined forces interpret lush scores from Kinan Abou-afach and Kareem Roustom; the music is at times driven and passionate, at others mystical and lyrical, responding to ancient Andalusian poetry in the Muwashshah tradition. The takht – masterfully handling the oud, qanun, violin, cello, and percussion – guides the kaleidoscopic sounds and colors in these poems of love, revelry, and war, with additional solo work by the virtuosic singer Dalal Abu Amneh. True to their commitment to honor tradition while constantly blazing new ground, The Crossing’s latest offering is steeped in history, deeply relevant to modern listeners, and bridges cultures seamlessly.
A Native Hill
Release Date: April 9, 2021
Catalog Number: NV6347
Catalog Number: NV6347
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
Navona Records presents A NATIVE HILL from Philadelphia’s professional chamber choir, The Crossing. This monumental unaccompanied work is the result of a collaboration with composer Gavin Bryars, whose previous work for The Crossing won them their first of two recent Grammy awards. With intimate knowledge of the individual voices and art of each singer, Bryars composed A NATIVE HILL to capitalize on the group’s unique sound, personality, and esprit de corps.
The Tower and the Garden
Release Date: February 12, 2021
Catalog Number: NV6303
Catalog Number: NV6303
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
On THE TOWER AND THE GARDEN, the multi-GRAMMY winning choir The Crossing and conductor Donald Nally ponder the fragility of the earth, the awe of nature, and the power of language to unite, or divide, society.
Carthage
Release Date: May 22, 2020
Catalog Number: NV6287
Catalog Number: NV6287
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
GRAMMY-winning chamber choir The Crossing is back with their latest installment in a multi-album series with Navona Records. CARTHAGE comes on the heels of the 2020 GRAMMY-nominated album THE ARC IN THE SKY, released last summer. In this latest offering, artistic director Donald Nally leads the choir through six striking pieces by composer James Primosch that confront the most elemental questions of Western philosophy.
The Arc in the Sky
Release Date: July 12, 2019
Catalog Number: NV6240
Catalog Number: NV6240
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
Multiple Grammy Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing moves listeners with their new release THE ARC IN THE SKY, a breathtaking performance of the eponymous work by accomplished choral composer Kile Smith. Based on texts by Robert Lax (1915–2000), it constitutes an American pilgrimage into spirituality.
Evolutionary Spirits
Release Date: June 28, 2019
Catalog Number: NV6218
Catalog Number: NV6218
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
EVOLUTIONARY SPIRITS brings together the artistry of Grammy Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing with innovative works of six contemporary composers. Ranging from songs of praise from the Biblical era to present day, and from contemporary poetry to the reimagining of a Shakespearean sonnet, EVOLUTIONARY SPIRITS explores humanity in all its facets.
Clay Jug
Release Date: February 10, 2017
Catalog Number: NV6073
Catalog Number: NV6073
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
The choral music of Minnesota-based composer Edie Hill shines on CLAY JUG, a compendium of large and small works for a cappella choir and choir accompanied by chamber ensemble. Though the works featured on CLAY JUG vary in scope, they all demonstrate Hill’s keen sensitivity to ensemble texture and harmonic density, as well as the incorporation of text across four languages.
Moonstrung Air
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Catalog Number: NV5989
Catalog Number: NV5989
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
The human voice: A forceful yet delicate instrument. The weight of its expression can be as heavy as a ringing bell or as light as the whisper of an autumn breeze. Composer Gregory W. Brown presents a collection of his vocal and choral works on the Navona Records release MOONSTRUNG AIR, capturing the wonder of the human voice as our rooted connection with nature.
It Is Time
Release Date: March 1, 2011
Catalog Number: NV5845
Catalog Number: NV5845
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
IT IS TIME features the compositions of David Shapiro, Kile Smith, Paul Fowler, Frank Havroy, Erhard Karkoschka and Kristen Broberg based on the German-language poetry of Romanian poet Paul Celan. Celan's words are largely open to interpretation and lend themselves to musical adaptations; the composers on this disc adapt the words well, and vocal ensemble The Crossing, under conductor Donald Nally, performs them beautifully.
Fine Music, Vol. 1
Release Date: February 1, 2011
Catalog Number: NV5841
Catalog Number: NV5841
21st Century
Orchestral
Solo Instrumental
Choir
Clarinet
String Orchestra
Navona's FINE MUSIC, VOLUME 1 is the first in a series of fine selections from Navona Records. This digital release features Grammy-winner Richard Stoltzman, Pulitzer Prize-winner Lewis Spratlan, Pixar/Randy Newman orchestrator Jonathan Sacks, and New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow. This collection both highlights some of Navona's choicest tracks and offers a preview of things to come.
Vespers
Release Date: April 1, 2009
Catalog Number: NV5809
Catalog Number: NV5809
Renaissance
Chamber
Liturgical
Vocal Music
Choir
Chicago's best-known early music ensemble The Newberry Consort exhilarates with VESPERS, a collection of dazzlingly original music for women’s voices. The composer? A mysterious early-17th-century Mexican named Juan de Lienas, whose style energetically oscillates between Renaissance and Baroque elements.
