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Donald Nally

Bienen School of Music

John W. Beattie Chair of Music and Professor, Conducting and Ensembles

About

Areas of Focus

  • Choral music, contemporary, opera, and historical
  • Conducting and the study of conducting 
  • Conductor of The Crossing, an award-winning professional chamber choir in Philadelphia
  • Has served as Chorus Master for Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The New York Philharmonic, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Bach Project, Welsh National Opera, and the Spoleto Festival, Italy
  • Frequent collaborator on art installation projects with artists Allora & Calzadilla and composer David Lang in Osaka, Cordoba, Porto, London, Houston, Cleveland, Edmonton

Work/Research

  • Author of the book Conversations with Joseph Flummerfelt
  • 37 commercially released albums, including:

David Lang: poor hymnal (Cantaloupe Records), Ochre (Navona Records), John Luther Adams: Sila: the breath of the world (Cantaloupe), Julia Wolfe: Fire in my Mouth (Decca, with the NY Philharmonic), David Lang: Prisoner of the State (Decca, with the NY Philharmonic), Tyondai Braxton: Telekinesis (New Amsterdam/Nonesuch), Ted Hearne: Sound from the Bench (Cantaloupe Records), John Luther Adams: Canticles of the Holy Wind (Cantaloupe Records) and Shara Nova: Titration (Navona Records)

  • Frequent Guest Artist/Masterclass Instructor at Universities: Yale, Harvard, Duke, Notre Dame, University of Chicago, Indiana University, University of Illinois, Boston Conservatory, Boston University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Career

Donald Nally has won the following awards:

  • Ten Grammy Award nominations, 2017-2023
  • Four Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance; 2018, Gavin Bryars’ The Fifth Century (ECM Records); 2019, Lansing McCloskey’s Zealot Canticles (Navona Records); 2023; Born: music of Edie Hill and Michael Gilbertson (Navona Records); Ochre: music of Caroline Shaw, George Lewis, and Ayanna Woods
  • Musical America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year
  • 2019 Honorary Doctorate of Humanities, Westminster Choir College at Rider University 
  • 2017 American Composers Forum’s Champion of New Music Award
  • 2017 Chorus America’s Michael Korn Founders Award for Lifetime Contribution to Professional Choral Music
  • Two-time winner of Chorus America's highest award, The Margaret Hillis Award: 2002 with Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and 2015 with The Crossing