INTERVIEW | Canadian Composer Tawnie Olson’s Beloved Of The Sky Recorded By GRAMMY Award-Winning Choir The Crossing
“Canadian Tawnie Olson is one of three composers featured on the latest album by four-time GRAMMY-Award winning choir The Crossing. The album, the choir’s 37th recording, and titled At Which Point, was released on the New Focus label on April 4.
The Crossing is a professional choir based in Philadelphia that specializes in new music, led by conductor Donald Nally. Their most recent GRAMMY win was just a few weeks ago. Other composers on the recording include Ayanna Woods and Wang Lu. Tawnie Olson’s Beloved of the Sky is a work in five movements, commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Competition, a fund established in 1983 at Brigham Young University in Utah.
We caught up with Tawnie to talk about the piece.
Composer Tawnie Olson
Olson earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary, followed by a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and a doctorate in music composition from the University of Toronto. She also holds n Artist Diploma from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.
Her compositions have garnered numerous prizes and accolades, including winning the 2021-2023 National Opera Association Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Composition Competition for her opera Sanctuary and Storm, with a libretto by Roberta Barker. She has also won a 2019 Copland House Residency Award, and the 2015 Iron Composer Competition, among others…”
