The Crossing Will Perform in Socially Distanced Experience, THE FOREST

On Saturday, July 3, 2021 at 6:00pm, Caramoor presents GRAMMY-winning new-music choir The Crossing, led by Donald Nally, in its unique, socially distant, live performance, The Forest. In a time when choirs cannot sing and perform together in conventional ways, The Forest features the 24 singers of The Crossing, situated in the sounds and sights of the Caramoor grounds, while audience members walk, socially distanced, through the soundscape and landscape. It focuses on the symbiotic relationship between individual trees and the forest - a metaphor for the relationship between each singer and the ensemble. The libretto is formed from The Crossing singers' reflections on their isolation during COVID-time, overlaid with texts from Scott Russell Sanders' essay Mind in the Forest. The music was composed by conductor Donald Nally and assistant conductor Kevin Vondrak.

Nally says, "Caramoor is an oasis of discovered vistas and stunning surprises as you turn each corner of The Forest's path; the singers of The Crossing merge with the trees, plants, and sprawling lawns of this iconic estate in an organic way that allows the words of our pandemic experience to appear to emerge from the earth and hang in the branches above. It is a perfect marriage of music, ensemble, and venue for our first visit to Caramoor - as memorable for our ensemble as we hope it will be for listeners."

Under the guidance of in-house sound designer Paul Vazquez, The Crossing developed an amplification system, ECHOES (Ex-Covid Haptotropic Optimistic Electrophonic Sound), to present The Forest in accordance with social distancing guidelines. Each ECHOES kit allows singers to stand and safely sing 30 feet from each other and from the audience while listeners walk along a well-worn, mostly flat path of approximately .75 mile lined with speakers. Though the work captures the isolation of singers during the pandemic, ECHOES paradoxically allows The Forest to be intimate and personal. The 30-minute, intimate experience attempts to reestablish those currently-broken relationships between singers and audience members, and tells The Crossing's story - a 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. Watch the world premiere of The Forest and read the libretto.

Link: https://caramoor.org/event/the-forest-summer-2021/