Donald Nally collaborates with creative artists, leading orchestras, and art museums to make new works for choir that address social and environmental issues. He has commissioned nearly 200 works and, with his ensemble The Crossing, has produced thirty-one recordings, winning three Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance, while nominated nine times. He has held distinguished tenures as chorus master for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and for many seasons at Il festival dei due mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Donald has worked closely with the artists Allora & Calzadilla and composer David Lang on museum projects in London, Porto, Cordoba, Edmonton, Houston, Osaka, and Philadelphia. He has been visiting resident artist at the Park Avenue Armory; music director of The Mile Long Opera, David Lang’s 1000-voice work on The High Line in Manhattan; and chorus master for works of Lang, Julia Wolfe, John Luther Adams, and Louis Andriessen for the LA Philharmonic, NY Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. His sixty-chapter series Rising w/ The Crossing, a response to the 2020 pandemic, has been archived by The Library of Congress as a cultural artifact – “an important part of the historical record.” Recent projects include the Swedish Radio Choir, Klockriketeatern at the Finnish National Opera, the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, the Big Ears Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, the Haarlem KoorBiënnale, and various projects at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Donald has been resident artist at the Park Avenue Armory and is a frequent guest artist/teacher at universities, including Yale, Harvard, the University of Chicago, Indiana University, Notre Dame, Westminster Choir College, and Boston Conservatory.

The Crossing is Musical America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year.

Donald is the John W. Beattie Chair of Music Emeritus at Northwestern University.

Contact: Chelsea Lyons: donaldnallyoffice@gmail.com