D1 AMERICAN POST-MINIMALISM

Donald Nally

Conductor

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 over 200 works and, with his ensemble The Crossing, has produced 40 recordings, winning 4 Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance, while nominated eleven times. The Crossing was Musical America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year and regularly tours Europe and the United States in venues such as Disney Hall, the National Gallery, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Finnish National Opera, the Baltic Sea Festival, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Park Avenue Armory.
Donald 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. He has prepared choruses for the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Donald works closely with the artists Allora & Calzadilla and composer David Lang on projects in museums of London, Porto, Cordoba, Edmonton, Houston, Osaka, and Philadelphia. He has been visiting resident artist at the Park Avenue Armory and music director of The Mile-Long Opera, David Lang’s 1000-voice work on The High Line in Manhattan. Two of his projects have been preserved by the National Archives of The Library of Congress as cultural artifacts, both responding to the 2020 pandemic: his 72-chapter series Rising w/ The Crossing, and Carols after a Plague, with contributions from twelve composers.
Recent collaborations include the Swedish Radio Choir, Klockriketeatern at the Finnish National Opera, Musikgebouw (Amsterdam), the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, the Big Ears Festival, the Haarlem KoorBiënnale, and various projects at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Donald is a frequent guest artist/teacher at universities, including Yale, Harvard, the Curtis Institute, the University of Chicago, Indiana University, Notre Dame, UNC Chapel Hill, and Boston Conservatory.
Donald is the John W. Beattie Chair of Music Emeritus at Northwestern University. For the 2026-2027 season, he is Visiting Professor of Conducting & Ensembles and Interim Director of Choral Activities at the Eastman School of Music. Prior appointments include Visiting Professor of Choral Studies at Westminster Choir College of Rider University (2024-2026) and Visiting Professor at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (2025-2026).