Our Fourth Grammy Award: OCHRE

Our Fourth Grammy Award

OCHRE: music of George Lewis, Caroline Shaw, and Ayanna Woods

Making music is so fun.

And it’s also fun to occasionally be recognized for it.

Welcome, Grammy #4, for Ochre;

a surprise,

and a reminder of why we do what we do.

(Not for awards,

but to sing about our relationship to the earth,

our inner lives,

and our histories as told through monuments.)

I want a monument we imagine and reimagine and reimagine—

A monument we grasp and heave and pull in a long arc

bursting through the cracks in the story you tell, America.

— words by Ayanna Woods, from SHIFT

Ayanna at the premiere of SHIFT, June 2021. Photography by John C. Hawthorne.

We are grateful…

✱ for the members of the Recording Academy, casting their votes for us once again for Best Choral Performance

✱ for composers – Ayanna, George, and Caroline – writing amazing music, inspiring ideas, relevant words

✱ for our community, here in Philadelphia and everywhere (as we head next week to Princeton, Iowa City, Des Moines, and Lincoln!)

✱ for our recording team – Paul, Kevin, Donald; 4 of 10 in 9 years. Is there a better Team?

✱ for our staff and board who lift up projects like this album, Ochre, allowing us to sing great music.

✱ for our donors and friends; especially for Carol Westfall, who makes our recordings possible. Thanks also to The Aaron Copland Fund for Music for support specific to this album.

✱ for the commissioners of these works: for the late and extremely generous Thomas Kasdorf, and for The Ann Stookey Fund for New Music (with a consortium for Caroline’s piece: Volti in San Francisco and Cantori New York)

✱ for the incredible community of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, which allows us to bring premieres to Philadelphia in the most extraordinary acoustic

✱ for our record label: Parma/Navona. Thanks for believing in us!

Finally, and most importantly, we thank the Artists of The Crossing, who are The Crossing; the tireless, creative, expressive singers who bring such integrity and honesty to our work.

Love.

Love, please.

Please, love.

The Crossing with George Lewis & Ayanna Woods.

Ochre was made by:

THE CROSSING

Walter Aldrich

Isobel Anthony

Katy Avery

Nathaniel Barnett

Kelly Ann Bixby

Karen Blanchard

Steven Bradshaw

Matthew Cramer

Colin Dill

Micah Dingler

Ryan Fleming

Joanna Gates

Dimitri German

Dominic German

Steven Hyder

Michael Jones

Lauren Kelly

Anika Kildegaard

Heidi Kurtz

Chelsea Lyons

Maren Montalbano

Rebecca Myers

Daniel O’Dea

James Reese

Daniel Schwartz

Thann Scoggin

Rebecca Siler

Tiana Sorenson

Daniel Spratlan

Elisa Sutherland

Daniel Taylor

Music by Ayanna Woods, Caroline Shaw, and George Lewis.

Donald Nally, conductor

Dan Schwartz, vibraphone

Kevin Vondrak, assistant conductor & artistic associate

John Grecia & John Walthausen, keyboards

John Conahan & Tim Lambert, guest keyboards

Paul Vazquez, sound design

Benjamin Perri, production assistant

Recording Producers: Paul Vazquez, Donald Nally, and Kevin Vondrak

Recording Engineer: Paul Vazquez

Assistant Recording Engineer: Codi Yhap

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering: Paul Vazquez

Album artwork by Paul du Coudray

Recorded at St. Peter’s Church in the Great Valley, Malvern, Pennsylvania. SHIFT was recorded August 24, 2021; A Cluster of Instincts was recorded December 10, 2022; Ochre was recorded December 12-13, 2022.

This album was made possible through the generous support of Carol Westfall. Additional funding was provided, in part, by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CROSSING

Timothy V. Blair

Tyler Carrigan – Vice President

Phil Cooke - Treasurer

Mallory Dennis

Micah Dingler

Shawn Felton – Secretary

Mary D. Hangley

Cynthia A. Jarvis – President

Lauren Kelly

Mary Kinder Loiselle

Michael M. Meloy