The Crossing Performs at Saint Peter’s Church

(Tyler Bassett)

On Friday, June 20, 2025, Saint Peter’s Church hosted the Grammy Award–winning choir The Crossing, under the direction of Donald Nally, for an evening of profound reflection and extraordinary artistry. The program, pairing Aaron Helgeson’s The Book of Never with selections from Gavin Bryars’ The Last Days of Immanuel Kant, explored the intersections of philosophy, faith, exile, and war.

The evening began with a 5:30 p.m. pre-concert discussion connecting the night’s music to the ongoing war in Ukraine, setting a deeply human context for the performance that followed. At 7:00 p.m., The Crossing filled the sanctuary of Saint Peter’s with luminous, resonant sound—voices unfolding across centuries of thought and struggle.

Helgeson’s The Book of Never, recipient of a 2024 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, was inspired by the ancient Novgorod Codex, a 10th-century wooden psalter layered with writing, erasure, and renewal. His score interweaves that text with fragments from Neruda, Gertrude Stein, Angela Davis, Oscar Wilde, and others, creating a vast sonic tapestry that speaks to exile, resilience, and the preservation of culture amid destruction. Its massive choral harmonies—echoes of “imaginary cathedrals”—rose powerfully in the church’s warm acoustics.

Paired with Helgeson’s modern lament was Bryars’ The Last Days of Immanuel Kant, drawn from Thomas De Quincey’sportrait of the philosopher’s final reflections on space and time. The piece resonated with the present moment, as both works wrestled with how ideas—and humanity itself—endure through turmoil.

All proceeds from the concert were donated to Safe Passage 4 Ukraine, supporting families displaced by the war.

Through daring music and moral urgency, The Book of Never embodied what The Crossing and Saint Peter’s Church share: a belief that art can bear witness, bridge time, and open hearts—even in the shadow of conflict.