DONALD NALLY, CHORUS MASTER, CHICAGO LYRIC OPERA
TWO-DAY RESIDENCY
MARCH 31 AND APRIL 1, 2008
EVENTS OPEN TO PUBLIC

Donald Nally conducts and writes about choral music and opera, most recently at Welsh National Opera, with whom he will tour the UK this fall. He has collaborated on opera and concert music with many of the world’s great conductors and directors, including Carlo Rizzi, Richard Hickox, Spiros Argiris, Vladimir Jurovski, Sir Charles Mackerras, Alexaner Polianichko, Corrado Rovaris, Maurizio Barbacini, Gian Carlo Menotti, Günther Kraemer, David Pountney, Richard Jones, John Caird, Ralf Långback, Guilio Chazalette, Filippo Sanjust, Alfredo Arias, Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser.

Donald has prepared choirs for the London Philharmonia, the Philadelphia Orchestra (including the world premiere of Hannibal’s One Heart Beating), Sinfonia Cymru, the Opera Company of Philadelphia (over fifty productions), the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition Galas, and Spoleto USA. From 1994-2001 he was Chorus Master of Spoleto Festival Italy where he prepared and conducted over twenty operas and hundreds of concerts, including the Italian premieres of works of Huber, Musto, Convery, MacMillan, and Pärt. An Opera News review of the 2001 recording of Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street (Chandos/Hickox) noted, “most remarkable is the superb singing of the Spoleto Festival Chorus.” He has conducted the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Musica Pacifica, Coro Vico Alto of Siena, the Sienna International Choral Festival, and The Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia,where he was Artistic Director from 1998-2002, during which time the chorus received Chorus America’s national award for choral excellence and was chosen as “The Best of Philadelphia” by Philadelphia Magazine. Under his direction the Choir of Saint Mark’s Church was chosen to sing services and concerts for national gatherings of the American Guild of Organists and the Lutheran Association of Church Musicians, the focus being the choir’s facility with and dedication to new sacred music. In 2002, a Philadelphia music critic named him “the choral czar of Philadelphia.”

Donald holds degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, Westminster Choir College, and a doctorate from the University of Illinois. He has served on the faculties of West Chester University, Ursinus College, and was Chair of the Music Department at The Academy, Chicago’s Performing Arts High School. His music is published by Paraclete Press and his articles on the choral music of Samuel Barber will be published in the Choral Journal this October. An advocate of new music, Donald has conducted commissioned premieres of works by Jake Heggie, John Musto, Robert Maggio, Robert Convery, Neely Bruce, Sharon Hershey, David Shapiro, William Brooks, Howard Yermish, and Benjamin C.S. Boyle.