Just Announced – Grammy-Winning Choir Joins Present Music for Thanksgiving – Of Being Numerous
MILWAUKEE, WI — This Thanksgiving season, Milwaukee will host one of the most acclaimed choirs in the world. The four-time Grammy Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing, led by conductor Donald Nally, will join Present Music for a groundbreaking new concert experience: “Thanksgiving: Of Being Numerous.”
The program features the world premiere of Christopher Cerrone’s “Of Being Numerous,” an expansive new choral work based on George Oppen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poem that examines individuality, democracy, and belonging. The concert will also feature Grammy- and Pulitzer-winning composer Caroline Shaw’s “Ochre,” Paul Wiancko’s “Distant Maneuvers,” and the return of the beloved Little Priest Singers, whose Ho-Chunk and southern traditional songs open and close the event with deep reverence and joy.
“All of us at Present Music and The Crossing feel Chris Cerrone’s “Of Being Numerous” meets this moment,” said Present Music Artistic Director Eric Segnitz. “It offers a vision of diverse voices creating unity in a fractured time, something we all need right now.”
A Collaboration of National Importance
“The Crossing is widely recognized as America’s most astonishing choir,” wrote The New York Times. Their arrival in Milwaukee marks a defining moment for the city’s contemporary music scene. Known for their fearless performances and dedication to new works, the Philadelphia-based ensemble has commissioned nearly 200 pieces and earned four Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance, including their most recent 2025 win for the album OCHRE.
Before coming to Milwaukee, The Crossing and Present Music will perform in Philadelphia as part of ArtPhilly’s “What Now: 2026” citywide arts festival, cementing this collaboration as a bi-city artistic exchange linking two of the nation’s most forward-looking contemporary music ensembles. The Milwaukee concert will also be livestreamed nationally, expanding access to audiences across the country.
“Of Being Numerous” has been commissioned for Present Music by Jan Serr & John Shannon. Serr & Shannon also commissioned Cerrone’s The Branch Will Not Break which Present Music premiered in November 2015.
About the Program
- Christopher Cerrone – Of Being Numerous (World Premiere)
A deeply human meditation on Oppen’s poem, “Of Being Numerous,” combines choral textures, electronics, and recorded voices of literary giants including Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot, and William Faulkner. Cerrone weaves these voices, real and imagined, into a contemporary soundscape exploring what it means to be many and yet one. - Caroline Shaw – Ochre
A luminous, mostly wordless work inspired by the earth’s oldest pigment and its connection to ritual, memory, and renewal. - Paul Wiancko – Distant Maneuvers
A kaleidoscopic instrumental work originally commissioned by Present Music that bridges past and present through intricate rhythmic storytelling. - Little Priest Singers
Their traditional songs bring ancestral grounding to Present Music’s annual Thanksgiving concert, honoring the land’s first peoples and the power of shared gratitude.
All ticket holders are invited to a post-concert reception in the Cathedral Atrium to meet the members of The Crossing, Donald Nally, Christopher Cerrone, and the Present Music musicians, Board and staff.
A Season About Freedom, Voice, and Vision
The collaboration reflects The Crossing’s 2025–26 season theme, inspired by George Oppen’s life and poetry, his commitment to art, democracy, and dissent. As conductor Donald Nally explains, “Our season celebrates 250 years of America’s freedoms, achievements, struggles, and divisions. ‘Of Being Numerous’ embodies that dialogue through sound, collaboration, and gratitude.”
Thanksgiving: Of Being Numerous Concert
Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist 812 E. Jackson St., Milwaukee, WI
Sunday, November 23, 2025
5:00 p.m. Show | 4:00 p.m. Pre-concert conversation with David Bloom, Christopher Cerrone, and Donald Nally
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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