An American vocal ensemble of roughly 35 members, The Crossing has earned widespread critical esteem by concentrating on contemporary repertoire and expanding choral programming through extensive commissions. The ensemble has generated a substantial body of newly commissioned works. Led by Donald Nally, it has issued numerous recordings on new-music labels such as Innova, Cantaloupe, and Navona, the last of which released the album Ochre in 2024.
Established in 2005 by associates that included longtime choral conductor Donald Nally, previously artistic director of the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and chorus master of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the group experienced the sudden death of co-founder Jeffrey Dinsmore during a 2014 rehearsal. Recognition arrived swiftly, marked by a 2007 residency at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Subsequent partnerships have ranged from the American Composers Orchestra to The Rolling Stones, with whom the choir appeared on a 2013 tour. Performances have taken place at Lincoln Center during the Mostly Mozart Festival, where a new work by John Luther Adams received its premiere, as well as at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Between 2009 and 2014 the ensemble presented its own Month of Moderns festival. Recordings have appeared on Navona, Innova, Albany, ECM, and Cantaloupe.
Central to its mission has been the vigorous commissioning program that has yielded more than 70 premieres by composers of varied backgrounds, among them Latvia’s Ēriks Ešenvalds, Iceland’s Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Americans Gregory W. Brown, John Luther Adams, Gabriel Jackson, David Lang, David Shapiro, and Lewis Spratlan. The ensemble’s artistry has drawn consistent praise from both mainstream outlets and new-music specialists. In 2019, under Nally, it released two albums, Voyages: Benjamin C.S. Boyle, Robert Convery, and Kile Smith: The Arc in the Sky, each of which received a Grammy nomination. That year the choir also appeared on the Grammy-nominated album of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in My Mouth with the New York Philharmonic. Despite pandemic restrictions that complicated choral singing, productivity continued unabated, resulting in 11 albums issued between 2020 and 2024 and a 2023 Grammy Award for the album Born. Ochre appeared on Navona in 2024 and earned another Grammy nomination.
