Photo by Becky Oehlers
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, three-time Grammy Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing will perform David Lang's poor hymnal at Richardson Auditorium on the Princeton University campus. Presented by McCarter Theatre, this performance explores themes of community, responsibility, and connection. Premiered in December 2023 in Philadelphia, the concert-length work has already become a staple in The Crossing's repertoire. Showtime is at 7:30pm.
Lang, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, has had his works performed worldwide, including multiple appearances at Lincoln Center. He also served as an artist-in-residence at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.
Beyond Lang, The Crossing has deep ties to the Princeton community. Vincent Metallo, Princeton High School Choir Director, was a founding member of the ensemble, and Heather Kayan, McCarter’s Patron Services Assistant Manager, performed with The Crossing and appears on Zealot Canticles, which won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
Additionally, Dr. Donald Nally, The Crossing’s conductor, has strong roots in the area. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, Nally recently joined Rider University as Director of Choral Studies, leading the Westminster Choir,Westminster Symphonic Choir, and the graduate conducting program. He has commissioned nearly 200 works and produced 36 recordings with The Crossing, which has earned 10 Grammy nominations and three wins.
Tickets range from $43–$68 and are available for purchase online. McCarter Theatre Center is located at 91 University Place in Princeton, New Jersey.
Musical America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year, The Crossing is committed to collaborating with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir, often addressing issues of social justice. The Crossing has recorded 36 albums, receiving three GRAMMY® Awards for Best Choral Performance (2018, 2019, 2023), and ten nominations.
The Crossing collaborates with some of the world’s leading composers, ensembles, artists, venues, and presenters, including the New York Philharmonic, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Park Avenue Armory, the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Menil Collection in Houston, National Sawdust, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Haarlem Choral Biennale in the Netherlands, the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Carnegie Hall. The Crossing is represented by Alliance Artist Management.
Dr. Donald Nally, photo by Becky Oehlers
McCarter is one of the country’s flagship theaters and a vibrant center for community and the performing arts. Located on the campus of Princeton University, the company is an independent nonprofit, serving as a nationally renowned, multi-disciplinary creative hub for arts and ideas, offering theatre, music, dance, spoken word, and educational programs for all ages. A two-time Tony Award winner, McCarter’s legacy of artistic excellence dates back to the theatre’s first performances in 1930. Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Kaufmann & Hart’s You Can’t Take It with You, and William Inge’s Bus Stop all had their premieres on the McCarter stage, paving the way for a long history of collaborations with playwrights to launch remarkable works that have gone on to tens of thousands of performances, reaching millions of audience members around the world.
The company is equally revered for presenting global artists on its stages, including Alvin Ailey, Yo-Yo Ma, Samara Joy, Hasan Minhaj, Jon Stewart, Caetano Veloso, Rhiannon Giddens, Patti Smith, Esperanza Spalding, Lake Street Dive, and Herbie Hancock, among many others. Of the 100,000 community members who directly participate in the company’s work every year, more than 5,000 are students taking part in McCarter’s robust educational offerings in Princeton, Trenton, and schools throughout the region. McCarter leads with values of “justice and joy, and beauty in belonging,” creating stories and experiences that enliven minds, expand imaginations, and engage communities.
