Sumptuous Planet – our 31st album
has arrived; a musical universe in an hour 
Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe?
This value of science remains unsung by singers. …
This is not yet a scientific age. †

So begins David Shapiro’s Sumptuous Planet: A Secular Mass. 
A little exasperation from Richard Feynman, 
followed by a cornucopia of wit and wisdom from Richard Dawkins. 
Written for The Crossing, 
and given to the planet (and beyond)
in our 31st album, out today on New Focus Recordings.  

Find an hour and a quiet place where you can live a life through David’s ever-evolving, tirelessly creative world view, told through choral music. Share that listening with a friend and join us in celebrating the imagination!

My eyes are wide open to the extraordinary fact of existence. Not just human existence, but the existence of life and how natural selection has managed to take the very simple facts of physics and chemistry and build them up to make redwood trees and humans *
† Richard Feynman, from his talk “The Value of Science,”
provided courtesy of Ralph Leighton.
* Richard Dawkins, quoted in The Guardian, 2013-09-15,
used by kind permission of the author.

Both texts are set in Sumptuous Planet!
It takes a huge team to make an album.
We are grateful to all who have helped make Sumptuous Planet possible.

THE CROSSING
Katy Avery
Nathaniel Barnett
Jessica Beebe
Steven Berlanga
Karen Blanchard
Steven Bradshaw
Colin Dill
Micah Dingler
Ryan Fleming
Joanna Gates
Dimitri German
Steven Hyder
Michael Jones
Lauren Kelly
Anika Kildegaard
Heidi Kurtz
Maren Montalbano
Rebecca Myers
James Reese
Daniel Schwartz
Rebecca Siler
Tiana Sorenson
Daniel Spratlan
Elisa Sutherland

Donald Nally, conductor
Kevin Vondrak, assistant conductor
John Grecia, ensemble keyboardist
Ryan Fleming and John Walthausen, guest rehearsal accompanists
Paul Vazquez, sound designer
Sam Scheibe, summer associate

Recording Producers: Paul Vazquez, Donald Nally, and Kevin Vondrak
Recording Engineer: Paul Vazquez 
Assistant Recording Engineers: Codi Yhap
Editing, Mixing, and Mastering: Paul Vazquez

Photography by Ben Simon Rehn – www.bensimonrehn.com

Sumptuous Planet was recorded January 2-6, 2023 at St. Peter’s Church in the Great Valley, Malvern, Pennsylvania. It premiered July 8, 2022 at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill during The Month of Moderns, The Crossing’s annual summer festival of new music. Movement 4 was composed for The Crossing’s Jeff Quartets, in memory of Jeffrey Dinsmore, and was premiered July 8, 2016.

This album is made with the generous support of the Neubauer Family Foundation
and an Anonymous donor
album photography by Ben Simon Rehn