The Crossing Gives World Premiere Of New Work By Jennifer Higdon At American Choral Directors Association Conference February 24-25

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leah Rankin | Morahan Arts and Media
leah@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646-378-9386

THE CROSSING GIVES WORLD PREMIERE OF NEW 
WORK BY JENNIFER HIGDON AT AMERICAN
CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE 
FEBRUARY 24-25

ACDA Performance Followed by Concerts at the 
University of Chicago, Ithaca College, 
and Dartmouth College 

www.crossingchoir.org 

Philadelphia, PA (January 24, 2023) — Grammy Award-winning choir The Crossing, led by conductor Donald Nally, makes its Cincinnati debut with the world premiere of a new work by Jennifer Higdon at the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) on Friday and Saturday, February 24 & 25, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. The new work titled The Absence, Remember is the 2022 Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission by the ACDA for The Crossing and Donald Nally and is based on a poem by Athena Kildegaard – the mother of The Crossing singer, Anika. 

The Crossing’s full program explores themes of extinction, loss, absence, and our relationship to the Earth, hope, and responsibility leading with SHIFT by The Crossing’s inaugural Composer in Residence, Ayanna Woods. The program also includes Edie Hill’s Spectral Spirits, most recently featured on The Crossing’s current Grammy Award-nominated album, Born: The Music of Edie Hill and Michael Gilbertson. Works by Shara Nova, singer/songwriter from the band My Brightest Diamond, are featured throughout including selected movements from Titration – which were premiered by The Crossing in August 2022 and performed at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert in October 2022 – and Resolve and Urgency from her Carols After a Plague, recently released on The Crossing’s latest album of the same name. Several moments of Caroline Shaw’s new work Ochre are also featured, a work that was given its northeast premiere during The Crossing @ Christmas 2022 in Philadelphia. All works on the program were commissioned by or for The Crossing.

After singing for nearly 4,000 choral musicians at the ACDA conference, The Crossing takes the program on tour to the University of Chicago, Ithaca College, and Dartmouth College. They first perform as guests of the Neubauer Collegium and UChicago Presents at the University of Chicago on Sunday, February 26, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. at Friedman Hall at The Rubenstein Forum. On Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 8:15 p.m. they sing the program at Ford Hall at the Whalen Center for Music at Ithaca College, followed by a performance on Thursday, March 2 at 8:00 p.m. at Rollins Chapel at Dartmouth College.

Performance Details
The Crossing @ ACDA
The Crossing
Donald Nally, conductor
Friday, February 24, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Aronoff Center for the Arts | 650 Walnut St. | Cincinnati, OH 45202

Program:
Jennifer Higdon - The Absence, Remember (World premiere)
Ayanna Woods - SHIFT
Edie Hill - Spectral Spirits
Shara Nova - two movements from Titration; two movements from Carols After a Plague
Caroline Shaw - two movements from Ochre 

The Crossing on Tour
The Crossing
Sunday, February 26, 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
Friedman Hall at The Rubenstein Forum | 1201 East 60th Street | Chicago, IL 60637
Tickets: $10
Ticket Link: https://www.crossingchoir.org/events/2022-23/chicago  

Program:
Jennifer Higdon - The Absence, Remember (World premiere)
Ayanna Woods - SHIFT
Edie Hill - Spectral Spirits
Shara Nova - two movements from Titration; two movements from Carols After a Plague
Caroline Shaw - two movements from Ochre 

This event is organized by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society and UChicago Presents in partnership with the Humanities Division, the Provost’s Office, and the Music Department at the University of Chicago. 

The Crossing on Tour
The Crossing
Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 8:15 p.m.
Ford Hall at Ithaca College | 953 Danby Road | Ithaca, NY 14850
Tickets: Free
Ticket Link: https://www.crossingchoir.org/events/2022-23/ithaca   

Program:
Jennifer Higdon - The Absence, Remember (World premiere)
Ayanna Woods - SHIFT
Edie Hill - Spectral Spirits
Shara Nova - two movements from Titration; two movements from Carols After a Plague
Caroline Shaw - two movements from Ochre 

The Crossing on Tour
The Crossing
Thursday, March 2, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Rollins Chapel at Dartmouth College | 29 College St. | Hanover, NH 03755
Tickets: $18-$30
Ticket Link: https://www.crossingchoir.org/events/2022-23/dartmouth 

Program:
Jennifer Higdon - The Absence, Remember (World premiere)
Ayanna Woods - SHIFT
Edie Hill - Spectral Spirits
Shara Nova - two movements from Titration; two movements from Carols After a Plague
Caroline Shaw - two movements from Ochre 

About The Crossing
The Crossing is a Grammy-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 150 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, 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 the 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 released 29 albums, receiving two Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance (2018, 2019), and eight 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, Eric Southern, and Steven Bradshaw, and composers David Lang, Paul Fowler, and Michael Gordon on live and animated versions of new and existing works. Lang’s protect yourself from infection and in nature were specifically designed to be performed within the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which The Crossing premiered a number of newly-commissioned works for outdoors by Matana Roberts, Wang Lu, and Ayanna Woods. 

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.

Photo credit: Becky Oehlers Photography

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