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Press Releases
Grammy-Winning Choir The Crossing Returns to Montana for Residency July 24 – August 1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214
The Crossing Returns to Montana July 24 – August 1
Featuring a US Premiere by Gavin Bryars and The Crossing’s
Acclaimed Pandemic-Response Projects, in nature and The Forest
“America’s most astonishing choir” – The New York Times
Big Sky, MT (June 29, 2021) — Grammy-winning new-music choir The Crossing, led by conductor Donald Nally, returns to its summer home in Montana this July for its annual residency in partnership with the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center (John Zirkle, Executive Director) in Big Sky. The week includes three performances: a program co-presented with Tinworks Art on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 7:00pm at Story Mill in Bozeman featuring Ayanna Woods’ SHIFT, David Lang’s in nature, and the U.S. premiere of a new choral arrangement of Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet by Gavin Bryars; The Crossing’s acclaimed pandemic-time immersive experience The Forest on Friday, July 30 at 7:00pm at the Jack Creek Preserve in Big Sky; and a reprise of the Story Mill program in a high alpine meadow above the Gallatin Canyon at Cache Creek Outfitters on Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 7:00pm.
On Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 7:00pm, The Crossing and Tinworks Art at Story Mill co-present an acoustic program that includes the US premiere of Gavin Bryars’ Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, a choral arrangement of his 1971 looped composition of the same name in which an unknown homeless man sings his recollection of a Gospel hymn. Ayanna Woods’ SHIFT, a composition that contemplates reimagining our American monuments and their myths, will include the world premiere of the third and final movement of this brief trilogy. Finally, David Lang’s in nature, will receive its first live performance; it was commissioned by The Crossing and WMPAC and premiered in a version in which only four of the 24 singers were in person.
On Friday, July 30, 2021 at the Jack Creek Preserve, The Crossing performs The Forest, an immersive and intimate experience featuring the 24 singers of The Crossing, situated in the sounds and sights of the trees, while audience members walk, socially distanced, through the soundscape and landscape. The Forest focuses on the symbiotic relationship between individual trees and the forest – a metaphor for the relationship between each singer and the ensemble. The libretto is formed from The Crossing singers’ reflections on their isolation during COVID-time, overlaid with texts from Scott Russell Sanders’ essay Mind in the Forest. The music was composed by conductor Donald Nally and assistant conductor Kevin Vondrak. There will be timed entrances between 7:00-8:00pm and a bonfire from 8:00-9:00pm.
Under the guidance of in-house sound designer Paul Vazquez, The Crossing developed an amplification system, ECHOES (Ex-Covid Haptotropic Optimistic Electrophonic Sound), to present The Forest in accordance with social distancing guidelines. Each ECHOES kit allows singers to stand and safely sing 30 feet from each other and from the audience while listeners walk along a well-worn, mostly flat path of approximately .75 mile lined with speakers. Though the work captures the isolation of singers during the pandemic, ECHOES paradoxically allows The Forest to be intimate and personal. The 30-minute, intimate experience attempts to reestablish those currently-broken relationships between singers and audience members, and tells The Crossing’s story – a story of a planet in crisis, its people and its forests in peril, and yet, in that curiously human way, a story of hope and a way forward. Watch the world premiere of The Forest and read the libretto.
On Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 7:00pm, The Crossing performs its final 2021 residency event, a reprise of the Story Mill program, this time using ECHOES kits, perched on top of the Gallatin Canyon at Cache Creek Outfitters.
Program Information
The Crossing at Story Mill
Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 7:00pm
Story Mill | 799 Hillside Lane | Bozeman, MT
Tickets: $15 basic ticket; $40 support-the-arts ticket
Link: www.tinworksart.org/events/
Program:
Gavin Bryars — Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1971/2021) [US Premiere Arrangement]
Ayanna Woods — SHIFT (2020)
David Lang — in nature (2020)
The Forest
Friday, July 30, 2021 with staggered entrances from 7:00pm – 8:00pm
Jack Creek Preserve, 1206 Jack Creek Rd | Ennis, MT 59729
Vehicle Entrance Passes: $30 per car
Link: https://ci.ovationtix.com/
Program:
Donald Nally and Kevin Vondrak — The Forest (2020)
Note: The Forest experience is available by reservation only, entering at timed intervals between 7:00-8:00pm. With listening, stopping, and exploring, audiences can expect it to take about 30 minutes to experience The Forest. The Jack Creek Road is a private road, and upon ticket purchase, instructions about how to access the property will be provided in a follow-up email.
The Crossing at Moose Creek
Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 7:00pm
Gallatin Canyon at Cache Creek Outfitters | Moose Creek Rd | Gallatin Gateway, MT
Tickets: $50
Link: https://ci.ovationtix.com/
Program:
Gavin Bryars — Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1971/2021)
Ayanna Woods — SHIFT (2020)
David Lang — in nature (2020)
About The Crossing
The Crossing is a GRAMMY® Award-winning professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. It is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir that explore and expand ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir. Many of its nearly 120 commissioned premieres address social, environmental, and political issues.
The Crossing collaborates with some of the world’s most accomplished ensembles and artists, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Network for New Music, Lyric Fest, Piffaro, Beth Morrison Projects, Allora & Calzadilla, Bang on a Can, Klockriketeatern, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Similarly, The Crossing often collaborates with some of world’s most prestigious venues and presenters, such as the Park Avenue Armory, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, National Sawdust, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Menil Collection in Houston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Haarlem Choral Biennale in The Netherlands, The Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, The Kennedy Center in Washington, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space in New York, Winter Garden with WNYC, and Duke, Northwestern, Colgate, and Notre Dame Universities. The Crossing holds an annual residency at the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center in Big Sky, Montana.
With a commitment to recording its commissions, The Crossing has issued 24 releases, receiving two GRAMMY® Awards for Best Choral Performance (2018, 2019), and six GRAMMY nominations. The Crossing, with Donald Nally, was the American Composers Forum’s 2017 Champion of New Music. They were the recipients of the 2015 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, three ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, and the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award from Chorus America.
Recently, The Crossing has expanded its choral presentation to film, working with Four/Ten Media, in-house sound designer Paul Vazquez of Digital Mission Audio Services, visual artists Brett Snodgrass and Steven Bradshaw, and composers David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Paul Fowler on live and animated versions of new and existing works. Lang’s protect yourself from infection and in nature as well as Paul Fowler’s Obligations, based on a poem of Layli Long Soldier, were specifically created to be within the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Crossing’s pandemic response daily series, Rising w/ The Crossing, a series of 72 past live performances with notes by Donald Nally, has been archived by the Library of Congress as “an important part of the collection and the historical record.”
The Crossing is represented by Alliance Artist Management. All of its concerts are broadcast on WRTI, Philadelphia’s Classical and Jazz public radio station. Learn more at www.crossingchoir.org.
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*Artwork at top of release by Steven Bradshaw
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