The Forest - a film by The Crossing

The Crossing
Donald Nally, conductor
** recorded using using binaural (360º) audio capture and best experienced with headphones **
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The Forest is The Crossing’s response to the time we live in. We cannot sing safely indoors, so we are going outdoors and rethinking how we do what we do: sing, listen, connect.
We have designed an amplification system (we call it Echoes - www.crossingcho...) that allows singers to stand 30’ from each other and from the audience. Listeners will ‘walk through’ the performance, as speakers positioned close to their designated path create an intimate experience, reestablishing those currently-broken relationships between singers and audience members, and telling our story - the story of a planet in crisis, its people and its forests in peril, and yet, in that curiously human way, a story of hope and a way forward.
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The Forest (2020)
written for The Crossing
conceived and composed by
Kevin Vondrak and Donald Nally
words by the artists of
The Crossing
full text at www.crossingcho...
"just a collection of trees" melody drawn from Lansing McLoskey's "Dear World," a Jeff Quartet, on a text of Paul Borum. Used with kind permission of Lansing McLoskey.
Spoken text excerpted from "Mind in the Forest" © 2010 by Scott Russell Sanders; first published in Orion; collected in the author’s Earth Works: Selected Essays (Indiana University Press, 2012); used by permission of the author.
Additional spoken text by Louise Dickinson Rich
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filmed at
Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve
New Hope, Pennsylvania
October 2, 2020
film by Four/Ten Media
sound design by Paul Vazquez
with assistance from Chaz Devito
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Echoes Amplification Kits made possible by gifts
from Thomas Kasdorf and The Presser Foundation
More information about Echoes at www.crossingcho...
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The Crossing
Katy Avery
Nate Barnett
Jessica Beebe
Karen Blanchard
Steven Bradshaw
Colin Dill
Micah Dingler
Ryan Fleming
Joanna Gates
Dimitri German
Steven Hyder
Mike Jones
Anika Kildegaard
Heidi Kurtz
Maren Montalbano
Rebecca Myers
Rebecca Oehlers
James Reese
Dan Schwartz
Becky Siler
Tiana Sorenson
Dan Spratlan
Elisa Sutherland
Jackson Williams
conducted by Donald Nally and Kevin Vondrak
musical assistance from John Grecia and Paul Vazquez
project manager Anna Drozdowski
with assistance from Victoria Baccini, Emily Barth, Bellisant Corcoran Mathe, Marcie Marmura, Cody Hayman, Jenna Horton, Sarah Mannherz, and Lauren Tracy
scenic construction by Flannel and Hammer
Special thanks to:
Libby Glatfelter
Lansing McLoskey
Jonathan Bradley
Shannon McMahon
Katie Feeney
Peter Couchman and the staff at Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve
Susan Vigilante and Lori Hoppmann
The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill
The Crossing's recordings are made possible by an Anonymous donor.
#ComeHearNow

[@sryan77411]

I experienced The Forest live on October 5, 2020. I have only to find the stillness within myself to be transported back to that glorious evening walk among the hearts and voices of The Crossings Choir. Forever grateful for the creativity, authenticity, and tenacity that was necessary to make that evening and now this movie possible. Blessings on you all, and thank you for finding a way to CONTINUE SINGING.
Sing on, dear friends. Sing on.

[@peggybradshaw3605]

This will become part of history. When people look back on the Pandemic, they will see this beautiful film I will always remember the experience of walking through the forest surrounded by the beautiful voices of the Crossing Choir

[@franklinstroble338]

Beautiful, thought-provoking, and inspiring... opens up a *lot* of possibilities for what and how we can make music.

[@dineenmarshall2341]

I love this!