Welcome Ayanna Woods!
The Crossing’s first Resident Composer
Ayanna (in her Crossing knot cap!) and The Crossing, at rehearsal last night at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill
As we gather energy toward the opening of our season this weekend, 
we celebrate a new position at The Crossing: 
resident composer.

And, we’re grateful that the multi-talented and super creative Ayanna Woods will be the first to serve in this position, getting to know us better, writing a new piece, and spending time with our next-door neighbors, The Pennsylvania Girlchoir. 
 
From the seed of a small commission in September 2020, 
Ayanna’s SHIFT (premiered in video as a part of The Crossing Votes: 2020) grew into a three-movement work that we’ve now sung on the top of a mountain in Montana, in a field at Awbury Arboretum, at the Caramoor Festival in New York, in Richmond, Kalamazoo, at Longwood Gardens… and we’re taking it on tour this season. 

SHIFT has an incredible impact on singers and listeners, 
leading us to new performance technologies and storytelling. 
Its resonance convinced us that this is a relationship we must explore far more deeply: 
we want to see what kind of 
joy, 
self-evaluation, 
and creativity 
can arise from a more sustained partnership. 
Who is Ayanna Woods? 

Composer, improviser, 
bandleader of her group Yadda Yadda, 
sought-after touring bassist in the bands
TASHA, Manual Cinema, and Ben LaMar Gay, 
Grammy-nominated singer in Ted Hearne’s PLACE (Pulitzer finalist 2021), 
starkly frank lyricist, generous and innovative colleague. 

Ayanna will be with us lots: she’s here now! (Thus, the photo above, taken last night!)
She’ll be in residence as we develop our various projects of the season, getting to know us even better – all leading to a substantial new composition for The Crossing to be premiered at the start of the 2023-2024 season.

She’ll also be spending significant time with the fantastic community of the PA Girlchoir, conducting a series of workshops with the girls to derive musical material examining sisterhood and identity in post-Covid times. After the workshops, Ayanna will fashion this material into a second commission to be premiered and toured by PA Girlchoir in Fall 2023.

Welcome, Ayanna, our first resident composer.
Ayanna at MoM3: At Which Point (2021) for the premiere of "Refrain," the second movement of SHIFT
Header photograph by Kevin Vondrak
Additional photograph by John Hawthorne
New music only happens through your support.