Carnegie Hall presents Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness
$60-$70
- Alejandro Escuer, flute
- Svet Stoyanov, percussion
- Ksenija Komljenović, percussion
- Shane Roderick, percussion
- Mingyu Son, percussion
- Julia Krohn, spoken word
- Larry S. White II, spoken word
- The Ailey School
- Donald Nally, conductor
Experience the New York premiere of a powerful and groundbreaking merging of music, visual art, dance, and spoken word, anchored by the visionary music of Carnegie Hall's 2024–2025 Debs Composer's Chair Gabriela Ortiz, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall. Inspired by James Drake's epic drawing of the same title, Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness features The Crossing—"America's most astonishing choir" (The New York Times)—led by Donald Nally; text by bestselling author Benjamin Alire Sáenz; a performance by flutist Alejandro Escuer; and guest collaborators who include military veterans, choreographer Harrison Guy, dancers from The Ailey School, and photographer Adam Holender. Through a journey from violence and conflict to healing and forgiveness, this unique production, directed by Stephen Jiménez, seeks to encourage hope in divisive times.
About The Crossing
The Crossing is a Grammy Award-winning professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. It is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir that explore and expand ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir. Many of its nearly 150 commissioned premieres address social, environmental, and political issues.
The Crossing collaborates with some of the world’s most accomplished ensembles and artists, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Network for New Music, Lyric Fest, Piffaro, Beth Morrison Projects, Allora & Calzadilla, Bang on a Can, Klockriketeatern, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Similarly, The Crossing often collaborates with some of world’s most prestigious venues and presenters, such as the Park Avenue Armory, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, National Sawdust, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Menil Collection in Houston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Haarlem Choral Biennale in The Netherlands, The Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, The Kennedy Center in Washington, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space in New York, Winter Garden with WNYC, and Duke, Northwestern, Colgate, and Notre Dame Universities. The Crossing holds an annual residency at the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center in Big Sky, Montana.
With a commitment to recording its commissions, The Crossing has issued 27 releases, receiving two GRAMMY® Awards for Best Choral Performance (2018, 2019), and seven Grammy nominations. The Crossing, with Donald Nally, was the American Composers Forum’s 2017 Champion of New Music. They were the recipients of the 2015 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, three ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, and the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award from Chorus America.
Recently, The Crossing has expanded its choral presentation to film, working with Four/Ten Media, in-house sound designer Paul Vazquez of Digital Mission Audio Services, visual artists Brett Snodgrass and Steven Bradshaw, and composers David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Paul Fowler on live and animated versions of new and existing works. Lang’s protect yourself from infection and in nature as well as Paul Fowler’s Obligations, based on a poem of Layli Long Soldier, were specifically created to be within the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Crossing’s pandemic response daily series, Rising w/ The Crossing, a series of 72 live performances with notes by Nally, has been archived by the Library of Congress as “an important part of the collection and the historical record.”
The Crossing is represented by Alliance Artist Management. All of its concerts are broadcast on WRTI, Philadelphia’s Classical and Jazz public radio station. Learn more at www.crossingchoir.org.
http://www.crossingchoir.orgAbout Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall's mission is to present extraordinary music and musicians on the three stages of this legendary hall, to bring the transformative power of music to the widest possible audience, to provide visionary education programs, and to foster the future of music through the cultivation of new works, artists, and audiences.
https://www.carnegiehall.org/About Alejandro Escuer, flute
Alejandro Escuer (Mexico, 1963) is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist and flutist who has developed his own artistic and visual foundations on music interpretation and music composition, which have had an impact on his concerts and recordings. He is at ease performing as a soloist with symphony orchestra or solo recitals with piano, guitar, electronics, percussion, multimedia or ensemble. He has captivated audiences with his commitment to and delight in performing a unique selection of original works, ranging from the masterpieces of all times to Latin American works and his own compositions and improvisations.
https://alejandroescuer.comAbout Svet Stoyanov, percussion
Praised by The New York Times for his "understated but unmistakable virtuosity" along with a "winning combination of gentleness and fluidity," Svet Stoyanov is a driving force in modern percussion. Winner of the prestigious Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Svet was also presented with the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Award. He has been a featured concerto soloist with the Chicago, Seattle, and the American Symphony Orchestras, as well as solo performances in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Taiwan National Concert Hall.
https://percarts.com/