Welcome Sarah Rimkus! The Crossing’s 24/25 Resident Composer

Welcome Sarah Rimkus!

The Crossing’s 2024-2025 Resident Composer

We celebrate creation.

Making something out of nothing.

We are grateful to have the opportunity to get to know yet another

innovative mind,

thoughtful human being,

caring citizen,

imaginative musician,

artist.

Welcome, Sarah!

We were fortunate to introduce Sarah’s music to our audiences last March, singing several movements from her Babylon, a gripping and effective meditation on refugeeism and isolation. Singers and listeners alike agreed in their enthusiasm for Sarah’s sound world, lyricism, and transparency.

They asked for more.

This is our opportunity for just that!

A residency with The Crossing for our 2024-2025 Season: Transcendental Idealists.

Who is Sarah?

Sarah is currently on the faculty at Sewanee – The University of the South, in Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, composer Thomas LaVoy. A native of Seattle, Sarah has been commissioned by many ensembles and institutions, including the Peabody Conservatory, The Gesualdo Six, and Chor Leoni. Quality and construction of text is a hallmark of her work, directly aligning with the aesthetic priorities of The Crossing: a deep dive into texts, often scientific in nature, always asking questions about the world we live in, reflecting the principle that words matter.

Photo by Jackie Brettschneider

This season, Sarah will spend time getting to know us and our Philadelphia community, visiting during our December project – the reprise of David Lang’s poor hymnal with two performances in Philadelphia and our Alice Tully Hall debut in New York – and again in June, for rehearsals leading to the world premiere of a new work from Gavin Bryars.

Sarah will then compose a new work for The Crossing and long-time collaborator cellist Thomas Mesa, to premiere at The Crossing @ Christmas/The Jeffrey Dinsmore Memorial Concerts in December 2025.

Sarah’s appointment follows on the successes of our previous two Resident Composers. 2022-2023 Resident Composer Ayanna Woods wrote for us the remarkably effective Infinite Body, exploring how capitalism influences our relationship to our bodies. We premiered it in September 2023 and took it on tour to New England. 2023-2024 Resident Composer Nina Shekhar is currently writing a unique concerto, for piano and choir, that will feature Philadelphia pianist Dynasty Battles – to premiere October 18, 2025, with a repeat performance the next day that will be the first of a new partnership with Artcinia’s Music in Our Neighborhoods program, dedicated to bringing community-driven, engaging, affordable performances to neighborhood spaces throughout Philadelphia, making the arts accessible to all.

The Crossing’s Resident Composer program is made possible in part by generous support from Peter and Judy Leone.