Eastman School of Music Announces Interim Choral Director for 2026-2027 Academic Year
Eastman School of Music, of the University of Rochester, is pleased to announce that Donald Nally has been named visiting professor of conducting & ensembles and interim director of choral activities for the 2026-2027 academic year. A full search for a permanent professor will take place in the fall 2026.
“We are delighted to welcome Donald to Eastman for the 2026-27 academic year. I know our students and community will benefit from his experience and artistry,” shares Kate Sheeran, Joan and Martin Messinger Dean. “We are grateful to Dr. William Weinert, who is retiring after more than three decades of leading Eastman’s choral programs. His legacy is felt deeply by students and alumni.”
Nally is the John W. Beattie Chair of Music Emeritus at Northwestern University. This season he is visiting professor of choral studies at Westminster Choir College of Rider University and visiting professor at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. He has held distinguished tenures as chorus master for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and for many seasons at Il Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. He has prepared choruses for the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Symphony Orchestra.
At Eastman, Nally will direct choruses including the Eastman Chorale and Eastman-Rochester Chorus and will work with graduate students in the choral conducting program.
“Having admired Eastman’s faculty and students for decades and been fortunate to work with graduates of Dr. Weinert’s prestigious choral program, it is an honor (and eagerly anticipated delight!) to be invited to join the Eastman community as interim, to share my ideas while learning from everyone there, and to make communal music together,” Nally says.
Nally has commissioned over 200 works and, with his ensemble The Crossing, has produced 39 recordings, winning four GRAMMY Awards for Best Choral Performance and receiving 11 nominations. For more information about The Crossing and Donald Nally please visit CrossingChoir.com.
Nally photo credit: Charles Grove Photography
Media only: Jessica Kaufman, Executive Director of Marketing & Communications; (585) 278-4743; jkaufman@esm.rochester.edu
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About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprising more than 170 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, GRAMMY winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members and guest artists present more than 1,000 concerts to the Rochester community. Additionally, over 1,700 members of the Rochester community, from young children through senior citizens, are enrolled in the Eastman Community Music School.
About the University of Rochester:
The University of Rochester is one of the nation’s leading private research universities, one of only 62-member institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives undergraduates exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.