Friday, Jan 17, 2025
Dr. Donald Nally ’87 is an international leader in choral music
by Rachel Stengel '14, '20
Dr. Donald Nally ’87 has been named director of choral studies for Westminster Choir College of Rider University. The three-time Grammy Award winner joined the full-time faculty this fall as conductor of the Westminster Choir and the Westminster Symphonic Choir and head of the graduate conducting program.
In his new role, he will guide undergraduate and graduate students as they cultivate their musicianship and artistry, and help set the trajectory for the College’s choral ensembles. He will continue to work with graduate conducting students in the Master of Music program. Nally, who studied with Joseph Flummerfelt and earned his Master of Music degree from Westminster Choir College, values the personalized experience students have in Westminster’s programs.
“Graduates of Westminster Choir College are unusually connected through a shared experience of high-level music-making and extraordinary community,” says Nally. “Few have the privilege and honor to serve as the leader of the program we all loved; the responsibility is both daunting and exhilarating. My work on campus with the choirs has been, not surprisingly, inspiring and joyful, and I look forward to a thoughtful dialogue with students, colleagues, administration and alumni in finding the right direction for Westminster as we explore historical music as well as music of today — music that will help shape the future of our art.”
Graduates of Westminster Choir College are unusually connected through a shared experience of high-level music-making and extraordinary community."
An international leader in choral music, Nally has commissioned nearly 200 works and produced 36 recordings with his ensemble, The Crossing. The group has earned 10 Grammy nominations with three wins. The Crossing is dedicated to new music, exploring and expanding the ways of writing, singing and listening to choral music.
“There is no one I trust more than Donald Nally to help shape our school’s future,” says Dr. Jason Vodicka ’03, ’09, associate dean of Rider's College of Arts and Sciences and associate professor of music education at Westminster Choir College. “I continue to be impressed by his vision, his leadership, and his focus on our students. His career in opera, education, and professional choral singing make him the perfect choice for our next director of choral studies.”
Nally, who holds the title of John W. Beattie Chair of Music Emeritus at Northwestern University, is a frequent guest artist at universities, including Yale, Harvard, Rice, the University of Chicago, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Indiana University and Boston Conservatory. In 2019, Rider University awarded Nally an honorary Doctorate of Humanities.
Nally has also held distinguished tenures as chorus master for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia and Il Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. He has prepared choruses for numerous internationally recognized conductors with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. This season, he will do so for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra. His 72-chapter series Rising w/ The Crossing, a response to the coronavirus pandemic, has been preserved by the National Archives of the Library of Congress as a cultural artifact; another pandemic project, Carols after a Plague, is currently being added to the National Archives as well.