Donald Nally (born December 27, 1960) is an American conductor, chorus master, and professor of conducting, specializing in chamber choirs, opera, and new music. He is conductor of the professional new-music choir, The Crossing, based in Philadelphia. He teaches graduate students at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music.
He has been nominated seven times for the Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, winning in 2018, 2019, and 2023. He has won numerous awards and is recognized as one of the leading commissioners of new music in the United States.
Early life and education
Nally was born in Hilltown, Pennsylvania, and educated at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (BM, music education), Westminster Choir College (MM, choral conducting), and the University of Illinois (DMA, choral conducting). He has been Artist in Residence at Washington and Lee University and Shorter University, has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois, and has been guest lecturer at Indiana University and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.
Professional life
Nally’s first professional chamber choir was The Bridge Ensemble which sang concerts 1996-1997; though it failed financially, it established a significant presence in Philadelphia, receiving a great amount of critical attention and laying the groundwork for the success of The Crossing.
From 1998 to 2002, he was Artistic Director of the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, during which time the chorus received Chorus America’s 2002 Margaret Hillis National Award for Excellence and was chosen as “The Best of Philadelphia” by Philadelphia Magazine.[5]
At the end of 2002, Nally left Philadelphia and moved to Wales to become the chorus master at Welsh National Opera. In 2006, Nally returned to the United States to become the chorus master for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.[6]
The ensemble began in 2005 when Nally and a group of friends sang an informal concert together. At the end of the 2010-11 season, Nally left Lyric Opera of Chicago and moved back to Philadelphia to focus on his Philadelphia ensemble, The Crossing, which specializes in contemporary works. It has received numerous awards, including the Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming[14] (2009, 2011 & 2017), the American Composers Forum 2017 Champion of New Music Award,[15] the 2018Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, and the 2019Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
Northwestern University
In September 2012, Nally joined the faculty of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois as a tenured professor and director of choral organizations.[16] He was appointed following the retirement of longtime professor Dr. Robert A. Harris, who held the position for the 35 years previous to Nally's appointment.[17] Upon arriving in Evanston in the fall of 2012 Nally founded the chamber choir BCE, a premier group of 26 singers dedicated to performing choral music of the 21st century and drawing relationships to its polyphonic roots in early music – primarily that of the Renaissance.[18]
The ensemble has sung several times on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW series[19] and appeared at both of Chicago's Ear Taxi festivals.[20]
In 2013, Nally rehearsed Howard Hanson's Song of Democracy, which sets texts from various poems of Walt Whitman.[21] An African American student objected to performing the work because he claimed Whitman was racist.[22] Nally told the student he would receive a failing grade if he did not perform the work.[22] The student claimed that a failing grade would have led to the loss of his scholarship.[23]
2012 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal from Chorus America[27]
2002 & 2015 Margaret Hillis National Award for Excellence in Choral Music (Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, 2002 and The Crossing, 2015)[28]
Works
Publications
"Gian Carlo Menotti: A Centennial Tribute", Voice Prints: Journal of the New York Teachers’ of Singing Association (January–February 2011).
Conversations with Joseph Flummerfelt: Thoughts on Conducting, Music and Musicians (2010, Scarecrow Press; ISBN9-780-81086976-9)
"To immerse myself in words: Text and Music in the Choral Works of Samuel Barber." DMA dissertation, University of Illinois, 1995.
"Barber's Op. 42: The poetry and music as key to his musical animus; Part I: Laurie Lee's Twelfth Night; Part II: Louise Bogan's To be sung on the water." Choral Journal 47.4 (October 2006).
Musical Compositions
Eclipse (2021), composed with Kevin Vondrak, on the poetry of Angela Jackson, an outdoor work for choir, lakefront, and full moon
You Can Plan on Me (2020), for SATB choir at Christmas
The Forest (2020), composed with Kevin Vondrak, an outdoor work for choir and ECHOES amplification kits
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (2003), for SATB choir[29]
The 10th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 29, 1968, at Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and New York. They recognized accomplishments of musicians for the year 1967.
Westminster Choir College (WCC) is a historic conservatory of music currently operating on the campus of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rider's College of Arts and Sciences, the college under which the historic institution has been reorganized, consists of Westminster Choir College as well as three additional schools.
David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. Co-founder of the musical collective Bang on a Can, he was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion, which went on to win a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance by Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices. Lang was nominated for an Academy Award for "Simple Song #3" from the film Youth.
Margaret Eleanor Hillis was an American conductor. She was the founder and first director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Meriwether Lewis Spratlan Jr. was an American music academic and composer of contemporary classical music.
The Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music is the music and performance arts school of Northwestern University. It is located on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, United States.
James Whitbourn is a British composer and conductor.
Stephen Paulus was an American Grammy Award winning composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature.
Matthew Hoch is an American academic and teacher of singing.
The Westminster Williamson Voices is an ensemble that specializes in choral music. It is named for Westminster Choir College's founder, John Finley Williamson, who believed that choral music performed at the highest level should be accessible to all. The Choir is directed by conductor, pedagogue, and writer Dr.James Jordan
NOTUS, formerly the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is the only university-based vocal group in the United States exclusively dedicated to the study and performance of vocal and choral repertoire written after 1900. It includes singers, composers, young scholars and instrumentalists chosen for their special interest in the music of our time. Depending on the repertoire, the ensemble adjusts its size to perform solo vocal, chamber choral and large oratorio-like compositions.
The Crossing is an American professional chamber choir, conducted by Donald Nally and based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It focuses on new music, commission and premiere works, and collaborates with various venues and instrumental ensembles.
Music of the Baroque is an American professional chorus and orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois.
A. Duain Wolfe is an American choral conductor, conductor of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and the Colorado Children's Chorale. He is the former chorus director and conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus (1994-2022) and a past president of Chorus America.
Kirsten Soriano was born April 19, 1979. She is an American composer from White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Her music has been performed by the Kronos Quartet string quartet, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW Ensemble, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Crossing choral ensemble, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente and the Jack Quartet string quartet. In 2013, she was appointed assistant professor at the University of North Texas and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2020. She has served as director of undergraduate studies in the college of music at the University of North Texas since 2018.
Jake Runestad is an American composer and conductor of classical music based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has composed music for a wide variety of musical genres and ensembles, but has achieved greatest acclaim for his work in the genres of opera, orchestral music, choral music, and wind ensemble. One of his principal collaborators for musical texts has been Todd Boss.
Andrea Clearfield is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Regularly commissioned and performed by ensembles in the United States and abroad, her works include music for orchestra, chorus, soloists, chamber ensembles, dance, opera, film, and multimedia collaborations.
Lidiya Yankovskaya is a Russian-American opera and symphonic conductor and the Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater.
Kile Smith is an American composer of choral, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. The Arc in the Sky with The Crossing received a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance, and the Canticle CD by Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble helped win the 2020 Classical Producer of the Year Grammy for Blanton Alspaugh. A Black Birch in Winter, which includes Smith's Where Flames a Word, won the 2020 Estonian Recording of the Year for Voces Musicales.
Lansing McLoskey is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His Zealot Canticles: An Oratorio for Tolerance was a winner of the 61st Annual Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance by the ensemble The Crossing. McLoskey serves as a Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music in Miami, Florida. Among McLoskey's numerous commissions are those from Guerilla Opera, Copland House, The Fromm Foundation, The Barlow Endowment, N.E.A., The Crossing, ensemberlino vocale, New Spectrum Foundation, Ensemble Berlin PianoPercussion, Passepartout Duo, the Boston Choral Ensemble, and Kammerkoret NOVA.
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