Episode 203: Programming as Storytelling with Donald Nally

Choralosophy

“It is not my job to answer the questions. It’s my job to ask the questions.” Programming for our choirs carries with it a wide range of challenges, from the skill levels of our groups, and their needs to the considerations of speaking to an audience. There are many ways to wrestle with this balance.

Renowned conductor of the Crossing Donald Nally joins me this week to think through the programming question from his perspective as both a director who has worn the “professor” hat, as well as the being the conductor of a high level professional ensemble. Donald shares his general philosophy and practice for creating a program that serves as its own piece of art.

This episode gave me a lot to chew on for choosing repertoire for choirs at all levels. You will learn a lot from this conversation too, from discussion about music with political implications, programming for storytelling, considerations for sacred music in non sacred choral contexts, and much more. The Crossing also has a new album called “Motion Studies” that serves as an interesting case study for the depth and breadth of what our art form is capable of communicating.

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Donald Nally was the John W. Beattie Chair in Music and director of choral organizations at Northwestern University. He collaborates with creative artists, leading orchestras, and art museums to make new works for choir that address social and environmental issues. He has commissioned over 180 works and, with his ensemble The Crossing, has produced 30 recordings. Donald and The Crossing have been nominated for nine Grammy awards, winning Best Choral Performance in 2018, 2019, and 2023. He has held distinguished tenures as chorus master for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, the Chicago Bach Project, and for many seasons at the Spoleto Festival in Italy.

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Donald’s collaborations include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Park Avenue Armory, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Menil Collection, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Beth Morrison Projects, Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, the Barnes Foundation, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNow series, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the National Gallery, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the American Composers Orchestra, Klockriketeatern at the Finnish National Opera, the Institute for Advanced Study, Big Ears Festival, and the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center in Big Sky, Montana, where The Crossing holds an annual residency.

MOTION STUDIES– Released on April 5th
OCHRE– Available on July 12th

In addition to his work with The Crossing, Donald has been visiting resident artist at the Park Avenue Armory, music director of David Lang’s 1000-voice Crowd Out at Millennium Park in Chicago, Lang’s 1000-voice Mile Long Opera on the High Line in Manhattan, and chorus master for the New York Philharmonic for world premieres of Julia Wolfe and David Lang. His 60-chapter series Rising w/ The Crossing, a response to the 2020 pandemic, gained national attention and was featured in The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR’s Performance Today; it has been archived by The Library of Congress as a cultural artifact as an “important part of this collection and the historical record.”

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