Rising w- The Crossing (Live) The Crossing & Donald Nally

• David Lang (b. 1957):
• 1 Lang: Protect Yourself from Infection 05:31
• Joby Talbot (b. 1971):
• 2 Talbot: Lost Forever (Live) 03:46
• Ēriks Ešenvalds (b. 1977):
• 3 Ešenvalds: Translation (Live) 04:26
• Dieterich Buxtehude (1637 - 1707):
• 4 Buxtehude: Membra Jesu nostri, BuxWV 75 (Excerpts): No. 4, Ad latus [Live] 08:11
• Paul Fowler (b. 1978):
• 5 Fowler: Songs from Rosemerry: No 1, First Pink (Live) 03:55
• David Lang:
• 6 Lang: The National Anthems (Excerpts): No. 1, Our Land with Peace [Live] 05:18
• Alex Berko (b. 1995):
• 7 Berko: Lincoln (Live) 05:46
• David Lang:
• 8 Lang: The National Anthems (Excerpts): No. 4, Keep Us Free [Live] 04:10
• Ted Hearne (b. 1982):
• 9 Hearne: What It Might Say (Live) 04:35
• Dieterich Buxtehude:
• 10 Buxtehude: Membra Jesu nostri, BuxWV 75 (Excerpts): No. 2, Ad genua [Live] 08:01
• Ēriks Ešenvalds:
• 11 Ešenvalds: Earth Teach Me Quiet (Live) 07:19
• Santa Ratniece (b. 1977):
• 12 Ratniece: Horo horo hata hata (Live) 09:57
• Total Runtime 01:10:55

Info for Rising w- The Crossing (Live)

Grammy award-winning, Philadelphia-based new music choir The Crossing releases its 22nd commercial recording, Rising w/ The Crossing. This unusual collection of live recordings from the ensemble’s extensive archive was selected by conductor Donald Nally for the ensemble’s 60-part series of daily releases, launched in March 2020 as an immediate response to the 2020 pandemic. That series is now archived by The Library of Congress as “an important part of the historical record” and lives on through this album of twelve remarkably varied and polished performances that capture the urgency and immediacy of The Crossing in concert. Featuring music by David Lang, Joby Talbot, Êriks Ešenvalds, Paul Fowler, Ted Hearne, Santa Ratniece, Alex Berko, and movements from Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri, the album is an expression of solidarity and community in the time of COVID. The Crossing is joined by the International Contemporary Ensemble for movements of Lang’s the national anthems, and early-music ensemble Quicksilver for the Buxtehude tracks.

Of the album's conception, Nally says, “‘We really love singing together.’ Those are the words that came to me when viewing a Zoom screen of faces of my colleagues, as we let them know we couldn’t sing together in March. Singing had been determined an unsafe activity at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. Our response to this grief was to ask how we can continue expressing and gathering, how we can hold the community together, how we can ensure artists can pay their rents, how we can use what resources we have to rethink who we are at this moment. One of those resources is an archive of 15 years of live concert recordings, musical moments in our history that stand out as special or loved or fun or challenging or just calm at a time when calmness stands in relief against a background of chaos moving into the foreground at the beginning of the Great Shut Down. We wanted to feel like we were walking through this together, waking up and starting our day together, Rising w/ The Crossing. So, we began sharing these archived moments on March 16, each accompanied by my thoughts on why we love singing together, and why we love singing that day’s music.

“Summer passed, and, with it, the promise of our 2020-21 Season. We found ourselves a part of social uprising, of a national reconciling, a previously unimaginable political contest, and a pandemic that had hold of the country and would not let go. As we looked at a completely re-imagined Fall and Winter, we wanted to ensure we remember this time, a time when routines and rituals like Rising w/ The Crossing felt like rudders in stormy seas, when communication was a gift, and when music…That time when music reminded us that we must never take it for granted. It is the bread by which we commune and the wine by which we are reminded that truth matters, words matter, Black Lives Matter, and singing together matters.”

David Lang’s protect yourself from infection, the inspiration for this collection, was commissioned by Blast Theory for the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia to remember the names of thousands of victims of the influenza pandemic of 1918 due to the ill-fated Liberty Loan Parade.

Êriks Ešenvalds’ Translation, Ted Hearne’s What it might say, and Paul Fowler’s First Pink were commissioned for The Crossing’s 2016 project Jeff Quartets, in memory of Jeff Dinsmore, co-founder of The Crossing. Though The Crossing has focused on contemporary music almost exclusively, they commissioned a project of responses to 17th-century composer Dieterich Buxtehude’s oratorio Membra Jesu nostri in 2016, when the group partnered with Quicksilver and the International Contemporary Ensemble for Seven Responses. Included on this album are two cantatas of Buxtehude’s masterpiece that underscore the common links of contrapuntal writing and natural color between contemporary and early vocal repertoire, a rare glimpse at the background of the artists and art that led to The Crossing.

David Lang’s the national anthems is the result of his investigation into many national anthems to find common links. In “our land our peace,” Lang begins with a simple, transparent statement of solidarity and accumulates intensity by layering texts and stacking rich, chordal verticalities. “Keep us free,” in contrast, has the feel of a folk dance – short, direct ideas lead to layers that evolve into declamatory statements over which a soprano solo drives the message: ‘our land will not die.'

The text for Alex Berko’s Lincoln appears on the dedicatory inscription in the Lincoln Bay at the Washington National Cathedral. A variety of pointed articulations leads to a more expansive final section, moving through a journey of conflict to healing, while capturing the righteousness of Lincoln’s conviction and the poignancy of his personal experience of leadership.

The Crossing
Donald Nally, direction

The Crossing
is a professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. Consistently recognized in critical reviews, The Crossing has been hailed as “ardently angelic” (Los Angeles Times, 4/14) and “something of a miracle” (The Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/14). Formed by a group of friends in 2005, the ensemble has since grown exponentially and “has made a name for itself in recent years as a champion of new music.” (The New York Times, 2/14). Highly sought-after for collaborative projects, The Crossing was the resident choir of the Spoleto Festival, Italy in 2007; appeared at Miller Theatre of Columbia University in the American premiere of James Dillon’s Nine Rivers with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE); joined Bang on a Can’s first Philadelphia Marathon; and has appeared with the American Composers Orchestra, Network for New Music, Lyric Fest, Piffaro, red fish blue fish, Tempesta di Mare Baroque Chamber Orchestra, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Toshimaru Nakamura, Dolce Suono, and in the summer of 2013, The Rolling Stones. The ensemble has sung in such venues as Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; they made their Lincoln Center debut this past summer in a world premiere of John Luther Adams in a collaboration with the Mostly Mozart Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, eighth blackbird, Jack Quartet, and TILT brass.

The Crossing frequently commissions works and has presented over forty world premieres. Upcoming projects include commissions with Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, David T. Little, Joel Puckett, Santa Ratniece, Caroline Shaw, Kile Smith, Lewis Spratlan, Hans Thomalla, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Toivo Tulev. The ensemble recently released two recordings on the Innova label: Christmas Daybreak– with world premiere recordings of James MacMillan and Gabriel Jackson—and I want to live – with the complete choral works for women by David Lang. Recordings soon to be released include Lewis Spratlan’s Hesperus is Phosphorus and Gavin Bryars’ The Fifth Century, both commissioned by The Crossing and on the Innova label, as well as Choral Music of Greg Brown on the Navona label. The Crossing is the recipient of two ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming as well as the Dale Warland Singers Commissioning Award from Chorus America.

Donald Nally
is responsible for imagining, programming, commissioning, and conducting at The Crossing. He is also director of choral organizations at Northwestern University and chorus master of The Chicago Bach Project. He has held distinguished tenures as chorus master for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Spoleto USA, and for many seasons at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. He has served as artistic director of the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati and the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia. Among the many ensembles Donald has guest conducted are the Latvian State Choir in Riga, the Grant Park Symphony Chorus in Chicago, the Philharmonic Chorus of London, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. His ensembles have sung with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Ballet, Spoleto USA, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Cymru, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, and ICE; his work is heard on numerous recordings on the Chandos, Navona, and Innova record labels. Donald is the recipient of the distinguished alumni merit award from Westminster Choir College and the Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal 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. His book, Conversations with Joseph Flummerfelt, was published in 2011.

Booklet for Rising w- The Crossing (Live)