The Crossing (choral ensemble)
Encyclopedia
The Crossing is a professional chamber choir
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, USA. They focus on new music, commission and premiere works, and collaborate with other Philadelphia ensembles.
The Crossing gave their first concert in November 2005 when a group of friends who had previously worked together with conductor Donald Nally
in Italy and Philadelphia reunited to sing a concert at Saint Mark’s Church, Philadelphia. A year later, they took up residency at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, which remains their host today. They have sung a full season of three or more concerts each year since.
The Crossing has evoked overwhelming critical response from the Philadelphia newspapers, calling Nally "a musical treasure whose local ties should be maintained and sustained at all costs," and the ensemble "an answered prayer" to Philadelphia musicians.
In 2009, The Crossing gave the opening concert for Chorus America’s National Conference in Philadelphia. It has received the 2009 and 2011 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming from Chorus America. The Crossing has produced two recordings to date under the Navona Records
label: Kile Smith's Vespers – with Piffaro, The Renaissance Band – and It Is Time, a collection of new works on words of Philip Levine
(U.S. Poet Laureate 2011-12) and Paul Celan
, including works (commissioned by The Crossing) by Kirsten Broberg, Paul Fowler
, David Shapiro
, and Kile Smith. In addition to these composers, the Crossing has commissioned works by Benjamin C.S. Boyle, William Brooks
, Gene Coleman, Eriks Esenvalds, Kamran Ince
, Gabriel Jackson, Chris Jonas, David Lang
, Andrew Gant
, Lansing McLoskey, Lewis Spratlan
(co-commissioned with Philadelphia’s Network for New Music), and Joby Talbot
and has presented American premieres of works by Ešenvalds, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen
, Frank Havrøy, Bo Holten
, Erhard Karkoschka
, James MacMillan, and Francis Pott
.
The Crossing counts among its collaborators International Contemporary Ensemble
(ICE), Lyric Fest, Network for New Music, Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
, Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, and Tempesta di Mare. David Patrick Stearns, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, has called The Crossing “Philadelphia’s best chorus"; it has been named to the Inquirer’s Top Ten Classical Events of 2008 and 2009. The Philadelphia classical and jazz radio station WRTI will begin broadcasting all of The Crossing’s concerts in December 2011. The Crossing has been the recipient of three major grants from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project.
. The 2010 Month of Moderns brought the "Levine Project," works based on the words of Pulitzer-Prize winner and now U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine
. "Seneca Sounds" was the theme for the 2011 Month of Moderns, works based on the words and philosophy of Seneca the Younger
. The theme for Month of Moderns 2012 will be “Modern Vespers” – works fashioned after the ancient evening prayer service, cast in modern themes and musical languages.
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, USA. They focus on new music, commission and premiere works, and collaborate with other Philadelphia ensembles.
The Crossing gave their first concert in November 2005 when a group of friends who had previously worked together with conductor Donald Nally
Donald Nally
Donald Nally is an American conductor and opera chorus master, specializing in chamber choirs and new music...
in Italy and Philadelphia reunited to sing a concert at Saint Mark’s Church, Philadelphia. A year later, they took up residency at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, which remains their host today. They have sung a full season of three or more concerts each year since.
The Crossing has evoked overwhelming critical response from the Philadelphia newspapers, calling Nally "a musical treasure whose local ties should be maintained and sustained at all costs," and the ensemble "an answered prayer" to Philadelphia musicians.
In 2009, The Crossing gave the opening concert for Chorus America’s National Conference in Philadelphia. It has received the 2009 and 2011 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming from Chorus America. The Crossing has produced two recordings to date under the Navona Records
Navona Records
Navona Records is an American independent record label based in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire owned by PARMA Recordings. Navona's sister companies via PARMA include the Ravello, Big Round, MMC, and Capstone Records label imprints, and the label is distributed by Naxos...
label: Kile Smith's Vespers – with Piffaro, The Renaissance Band – and It Is Time, a collection of new works on words of Philip Levine
Philip Levine (poet)
Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...
(U.S. Poet Laureate 2011-12) and Paul Celan
Paul Celan
Paul Celan was a poet and translator...
, including works (commissioned by The Crossing) by Kirsten Broberg, Paul Fowler
Paul Fowler
Paul Albert Fowler is a former English cricketer. Fowler was a left-handed batsman. He was born in Wigan, Lancashire.Fowler made his debut for Oxfordshire in the 1978 Minor Counties Championship against Wiltshire...
, David Shapiro
David Shapiro
David Shapiro may refer to:*David I. Shapiro, attorney*David Shapiro *David Shapiro , , American jazz musician*David Shapiro *J. David Shapiro , American filmmaker and stand-up comedian...
, and Kile Smith. In addition to these composers, the Crossing has commissioned works by Benjamin C.S. Boyle, William Brooks
William Brooks
William Brooks may refer to:* William Brooks of Blackburn , cotton supplier* Sir William Cunliffe Brooks, 1st Baronet , British lawyer and politician* William Edwin Brooks , Irish civil engineer and ornithologist...
, Gene Coleman, Eriks Esenvalds, Kamran Ince
Kamran Ince
Kamran N. İnce is a Turkish-American composer.- Life :Ince was born in Glendive, Montana, and at the age of six moved with his family to Turkey. He entered the Ankara State Conservatory at the age of ten, in 1971, where he began studying cello and piano, and took composition lessons with İlhan Baran...
, Gabriel Jackson, Chris Jonas, David Lang
David Lang (composer)
David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...
, Andrew Gant
Andrew Gant
-Biography:Andrew attended Radley College before going on to read Music and English at St John's College, Cambridge. He was a choral scholar and sang in the College Choir under George Guest. He subsequently studied composition with Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music and completed his PhD...
, Lansing McLoskey, Lewis Spratlan
Lewis Spratlan
M. Lewis Spratlan Jr. is an American music academic and composer of contemporary classical music.Born in Miami, Florida, Spratlan played the oboe as a youth. He attended Yale University and was a student of Mel Powell and Gunther Schuller...
(co-commissioned with Philadelphia’s Network for New Music), and Joby Talbot
Joby Talbot
Joby Talbot is a British composer.Born in Wimbledon, London, Talbot studied composition at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Brian Elias and Simon Bainbridge....
and has presented American premieres of works by Ešenvalds, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen
-Biography:Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is the son of the sculptor Jørgen Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. He studied at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, with Høffding, Westergaard, and Hjelmborg, graduating in 1958 .He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1980...
, Frank Havrøy, Bo Holten
Bo Holten
Bo Holten is a Danish composer and conductor.He has been the principal conductor for the vocal ensembles Ars Nova and Musica Ficta , as well as guest-conductor for the BBC Singers...
, Erhard Karkoschka
Erhard Karkoschka
Erhard Karkoschka , is a German composer, scholar and conductor. Karkoschka was born in the German linguistic enclave of Moravská Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, and subsequent to World War II became a violinist for the Bayreuth Symphony Orchestra, whereupon he studied composition, musicology and...
, James MacMillan, and Francis Pott
Francis Pott
Francis Pott, born 25 August 1957, is a British composer, pianist, senior academic and university administrator.-Life:He held open music scholarships at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, studying composition at the latter with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood while also pursuing...
.
The Crossing counts among its collaborators International Contemporary Ensemble
International Contemporary Ensemble
The International Contemporary Ensemble is a contemporary classical music ensemble of thirty chamber musicians, including strings, woodwinds, piano, percussion, voice and composers, which enables great flexibility of programming...
(ICE), Lyric Fest, Network for New Music, Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
The Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra is a chamber orchestra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1991 by Daniel Spalding.-References:* -Listening:*...
, Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, and Tempesta di Mare. David Patrick Stearns, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, has called The Crossing “Philadelphia’s best chorus"; it has been named to the Inquirer’s Top Ten Classical Events of 2008 and 2009. The Philadelphia classical and jazz radio station WRTI will begin broadcasting all of The Crossing’s concerts in December 2011. The Crossing has been the recipient of three major grants from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project.
Month of Moderns
In 2009, The Crossing established an annual festival, held in the early summer, consisting of three new-music concerts in one month, with several commissioned works based on a central theme tying the entire festival together. The theme for the 2009 Month of Moderns was the "Celan Project:" works based on the poetry of Paul CelanPaul Celan
Paul Celan was a poet and translator...
. The 2010 Month of Moderns brought the "Levine Project," works based on the words of Pulitzer-Prize winner and now U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine
Philip Levine (poet)
Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...
. "Seneca Sounds" was the theme for the 2011 Month of Moderns, works based on the words and philosophy of Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
. The theme for Month of Moderns 2012 will be “Modern Vespers” – works fashioned after the ancient evening prayer service, cast in modern themes and musical languages.
Commissioned World Premieres
- Benjamin C.S. Boyle: Lamentations of Jeremiah: Beth (2005)
- Benjamin C.S. Boyle: Lo, how a rose e'er blooming (2006)
- Kirsten Broberg: Breathturn (The Celan Project 2009)
- William BrooksWilliam BrooksWilliam Brooks may refer to:* William Brooks of Blackburn , cotton supplier* Sir William Cunliffe Brooks, 1st Baronet , British lawyer and politician* William Edwin Brooks , Irish civil engineer and ornithologist...
: Six Mediaeval Lyrics (choral version) (2011)
- Eriks Esenvalds: Seneca's Zodiac (Seneca Sounds 2011)
- Paul FowlerPaul FowlerPaul Albert Fowler is a former English cricketer. Fowler was a left-handed batsman. He was born in Wigan, Lancashire.Fowler made his debut for Oxfordshire in the 1978 Minor Counties Championship against Wiltshire...
: Breath (The Levine Project 2010)
- Paul FowlerPaul FowlerPaul Albert Fowler is a former English cricketer. Fowler was a left-handed batsman. He was born in Wigan, Lancashire.Fowler made his debut for Oxfordshire in the 1978 Minor Counties Championship against Wiltshire...
: Echoes (2011)
- Andrew GantAndrew Gant-Biography:Andrew attended Radley College before going on to read Music and English at St John's College, Cambridge. He was a choral scholar and sang in the College Choir under George Guest. He subsequently studied composition with Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music and completed his PhD...
: What child is this (SATB version) (2007)
- Kamran InceKamran InceKamran N. İnce is a Turkish-American composer.- Life :Ince was born in Glendive, Montana, and at the age of six moved with his family to Turkey. He entered the Ankara State Conservatory at the age of ten, in 1971, where he began studying cello and piano, and took composition lessons with İlhan Baran...
: Thyestes (Seneca Sounds 2011)
- Gabriel Jackson: According to Seneca (Seneca Sounds 2011)
- David LangDavid LangDavid Lang may refer to:*David Marshall Lang , historian*David Lang , American composer*David Lang , American football running back...
: Statement to the Court (The Levine Project 2010)
- David LangDavid LangDavid Lang may refer to:*David Marshall Lang , historian*David Lang , American composer*David Lang , American football running back...
: I live in pain (2011)
- Lansing McLoskey: The Memory of Rain (The Levine Project 2010)
- Francis PottFrancis PottFrancis Pott, born 25 August 1957, is a British composer, pianist, senior academic and university administrator.-Life:He held open music scholarships at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, studying composition at the latter with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood while also pursuing...
: Work in progress (Month of Moderns 2012)
- David ShapiroDavid ShapiroDavid Shapiro may refer to:*David I. Shapiro, attorney*David Shapiro *David Shapiro , , American jazz musician*David Shapiro *J. David Shapiro , American filmmaker and stand-up comedian...
: Et incarnatus est (2007)
- David ShapiroDavid ShapiroDavid Shapiro may refer to:*David I. Shapiro, attorney*David Shapiro *David Shapiro , , American jazz musician*David Shapiro *J. David Shapiro , American filmmaker and stand-up comedian...
: It is time (The Celan Project 2009)
- David ShapiroDavid ShapiroDavid Shapiro may refer to:*David I. Shapiro, attorney*David Shapiro *David Shapiro , , American jazz musician*David Shapiro *J. David Shapiro , American filmmaker and stand-up comedian...
: The Years from You to Me (The Celan Project 2010)
- Kile Smith: The Waking Sun (Seneca Sounds 2011)
- Kile Smith: Vespers (commissioned by Piffaro, The Renaissance Band in collaboration with The Crossing) (2008)
- Kile Smith: Where flames a word (The Celan Project 2009)
- Lewis SpratlanLewis SpratlanM. Lewis Spratlan Jr. is an American music academic and composer of contemporary classical music.Born in Miami, Florida, Spratlan played the oboe as a youth. He attended Yale University and was a student of Mel Powell and Gunther Schuller...
: Work in Progress (Month of Moderns 2012)
U.S. Premieres
- Ēriks Ešenvalds: Sun Dogs
- Ēriks Ešenvalds: Legend of the Walled-In Woman
- Ēriks Ešenvalds: Long Road
- Pelle Gudmundsen-HolmgreenPelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen-Biography:Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is the son of the sculptor Jørgen Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. He studied at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, with Høffding, Westergaard, and Hjelmborg, graduating in 1958 .He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1980...
: Examples
- Jonathan HarveyJonathan HarveyJonathan Harvey is the name of:*Jonathan Harvey , British composer*Jonathan Harvey , U.S. Representative from New Hampshire*Jonathan Harvey , British playwright...
: The dove descending
- Frank Havrøy: Psalm
- Bo HoltenBo HoltenBo Holten is a Danish composer and conductor.He has been the principal conductor for the vocal ensembles Ars Nova and Musica Ficta , as well as guest-conductor for the BBC Singers...
: A Time For Everything
- Erhard KarkoschkaErhard KarkoschkaErhard Karkoschka , is a German composer, scholar and conductor. Karkoschka was born in the German linguistic enclave of Moravská Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, and subsequent to World War II became a violinist for the Bayreuth Symphony Orchestra, whereupon he studied composition, musicology and...
: Vier kleine Finalsätze zu “Es ist ein Schnitter, heisst der Tod”
- Erhard KarkoschkaErhard KarkoschkaErhard Karkoschka , is a German composer, scholar and conductor. Karkoschka was born in the German linguistic enclave of Moravská Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, and subsequent to World War II became a violinist for the Bayreuth Symphony Orchestra, whereupon he studied composition, musicology and...
: Variationen mit Celan-Gedichten III
- Philip MoorePhilip MoorePhilip Moore may refer to:*Philip Moore, Baron Moore of Wolvercote *Philip Moore , organist and Master of the Music at York Minster*Philip Henry Moore , Canadian businessman and politician...
: I Saw Him Standing
- Francis PottFrancis PottFrancis Pott, born 25 August 1957, is a British composer, pianist, senior academic and university administrator.-Life:He held open music scholarships at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, studying composition at the latter with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood while also pursuing...
: My Song Is Love Unknown
- Kaija SaariahoKaija SaariahoKaija Saariaho is a Finnish composer.Kaija Saariaho studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by...
: Tag des Jahrs
- Paul SpicerPaul Spicer (musician)Paul Spicer is an English composer, conductor and organist. He has worked as a music teacher, at the Royal College of Music and the Birmingham Conservatoire, as a producer for BBC Radio 3, and as artistic director of the Lichfield Festival. He conducts the Birmingham Bach Choir, the Finzi Singers...
: How love bleeds
Major Performances
- National Conference of Chorus America – Opening Concert, Philadelphia, June 2009
- Month of Moderns 2009: Jody Talbot’s Path of Miracles (multi-media)
- Crossing @ Winter 2010: Regional premiere of David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion (2008 Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
)
Awards
- ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming 2009 & 2011
- Philadelphia Inquirer “Best Events in Classical Music 2008” for Kile Smith’s Vespers (David Patrick Stearns)
- Philadelphia Inquirer “Best Events in Classical Music 2009” for Month of Moderns (David Patrick Stearns)
- Fanfare Magazine “Best Recordings of 2009” for Kile Smith’s Vespers (Peter Burwasser)
Discography
- Is Time, The Crossing (Navona Records, 2011)
- Kile Smith, Vespers, Piffaro, The Renaissance Band and The Crossing (Navona Records, 2008)
External links
- Official Website for The Crossing