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CHORAL

CHORAL

TION
CONVERSATIONS
VERSA
CON
S

A Conversation with Donald Nally
by William Southerland

Donald Nally is the conductor of The ety on Tuesdays, Opera Company every other night,
Crossing, a professional chamber choir and the Spoleto Festival in Italy in the summers. We
based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, loved working together.
that is dedicated to performing and On a visit back from Wales, we were having a beer
commissioning new music. Their most about a half block from St. Marks, and somebody
recent album, Born: Music of Edie Hill said, “I really miss making the kind of music that we
Becky Oehlers Photography
and Michael Gilbertson, was recognized made; we should do a concert.” Later, my co-founder,
with the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Choral Perfor- Jeffrey Dinsmore, called me about setting up that con-
mance, the ensemble’s third such award. Since 2012, cert. I thought he was kidding, but he was very seri-
Donald Nally has served as John W. Beattie Chair of ous. So, we found a date and a time. I flew back from
Music, Professor, and Director of Choral Organiza- Wales for the performance. We had eighteen singers
tions at the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Mu- for that first concert and many of them flew in as well.
sic at Northwestern. Now, he is leaving his position in We benefitted from the fact that we had all been so ac-
Evanston, Illinois, to dedicate more time to his multi- tive in Philadelphia. One of the critics there knew us
award-winning ensemble. really well and wrote a preview, then a review. Both of
those write-ups were great, and we drew a nice crowd.
Can you tell me about the ensemble The Cross- I went home to Wales, but Jeff called a short time later
ing? and said, “So, when are we going to do it again?” And
so here we are.
We have twenty-four core members, and about two-
thirds of them are Philadelphians. In 2004, I left Phila- The Crossing works exclusively with new mu-
delphia, where I had lived for eleven years, and I moved sic, and a lot of people consider you one of the
to Wales to conduct the Welsh National Opera Chorus. central voices influencing new American cho-
In Philadelphia, we had this group of about twenty ral music today. What is your process like?
singers who did everything together: church choir at St.
Mark’s on Thursdays and Sundays, Choral Arts Soci- The majority of the time, I start thinking about

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2023 Volume 64 Number 3 73