Present Music Offers New Choral Works

Present Music, the classical music organization dedicated to nontraditional music, returns to a new Milwaukee tradition, their Thanksgiving concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. This unique experience celebrates community.

The event has also been a time that Present Music presents choral music, this week featuring a special collaboration with a contemporary choral group, The Crossing. Commissioning and performing new works since 2005, The Crossing is a professional chamber choir in Philadelphia that sings only new music, “bringing together creative teams to imagine, present, and record new, substantial works for choir that look at the world and our place in it.” The Crossing has commissioned more than 200 works, issued 38 albums, received ten Grammy nominations, and four Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance.

Present Music has commissioned a work by Christopher Cerrone. Inaugurated in Philadelphia this Friday night, the Present Music Ensemble and The Crossing repeat that performance on Sunday in Milwaukee.

Of Being Numerous, is based upon poet George Oppen‘s epic work by that name, which examines individuality within a broader social context. Cerrone writes of the commission. “I have long loved Oppen’s work—his insistence that we need each other, that the singular self is insufficient. Beyond the obvious analogy of a choir (numerous voices that speak as one), I was drawn to a text about the messy embrace of other people at a time when rampant isolation and individualism tear at society’s fabric.” As he worked on this, his first child was born. He continues, “The work changed. It became about my own messy and joyful embrace of the multiplicity and complexity of the self and others.”

The New York Classical Review writes of Cerrone:  He grew up when the “tools of the pop trade—electric guitars, drums, microphones—were natural to use as a composer. What makes Cerrone’s voice distinctive, is the specific flavor of pop that comes through. He’s not a rocker, he’s a dreamer, making textures and images that come out of ambient music.”

In 2023, the Crossing commissioned Caroline Shaw‘s Ochre, the other major choral work on the program. A highly acclaimed American composer, violist, and singer, Shaw is known for her adventurous, genre-blurring style. Her achievements in contemporary classical music include a Pulitzer Prize and multiple Grammy Awards. Shaw has appeared at Thanksgiving concerts and has been a favorite of Present Music audiences.

Shaw writes of this work, ​​“Ochre is a contemplation of the Earth, of our past, of those who came before us, of our understanding of the scale of geologic time, of how our actions today affect the planet in the future, of regret, of an appreciation for the beauty of soil, of color, of ochre, of the ancient human desire to paint representations of the world around us.”

In January 2024, Present Music hosted composer and cellist Paul Wiancko. His premiere composition, Distant Maneuvers for Present Music, will be reprised at this concert. The work was written for an ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion, and seeks to offer “a striking exploration of memory, consequence, and musical time.”

Both a cellist and composer, Wiancko’s background combines classical chamber performance, including with the Kronos Quartet and Harlem Quartet, with a broad palette of influences from rock, folk, and improvisation. A New York Times reviewer describes his signature style as “tonally lush yet harmonically mysterious.”

The Ho Chunk family drum ensemble, Little Priest Singers, has become a tradition that bookends the annual Thanksgiving Concert. The powwow drum holds significant ceremonial meaning, representing the heartbeat of the earth and community unity. American Indian songs will open the program and close it.

When a choral group is invited to Milwaukee, the concert is more likely to bring a delegation rather than the full group. This week is the exception. The Crossing will bring the numbers to fill the sanctuary with sound. (And Early Music Now will host Bella Voce with the forces to produce a “historically faithful” rendition of Handel‘s Messiah on Saturday, November 22, at Saint Joseph‘s Chapel.)

Christopher Cerrone will attend the concert and talk about his new work in a pre-talk at 4:00 p.m. The concert will begin at 5:00 p.m on Sunday afternoon, November 23. A reception will follow the concert. The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist is located at 812 N. Jackson St. in downtown Milwaukee. Tickets may be purchased online or at the door.

Present Music returns for a concert, Avant Garden of Love (2nd Edition) on February 13, 2026, at the Jan Serr Studios for “a twisted Valentine’s Day.”