(Credit: Becky Oehlers Photography)

The Crossing is set to perform the world premiere performances of Michael Gordon’s “Travel Guide to Nicaragua” this March.

The group will join forces with cellist Maya Beiser to present a performance on March 22, 2020 at the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, before taking up the work yet again on March 25, 2020 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

“Travel Guide to Nicaragua,” Gordon’s third work for The Crossing, is inspired by the composer’s own first eight years of life on the outskirts of Managua, Nicaragua. He is also working on “Montaña,” a multi-year collaboration with The Crossing and filmmaker Bill Morrison. This work will be presented at Warren Miller Performing Arts Center in Big Sky, Montana.

“We feel ‘Anonymous Man’ is a truly inspired and important work and it sparked a lot of discussion of ‘what next,'”  conductor Donald Nally told OperaWire of the relationship with Gordon, which began with “Anonymous Man.” “Since then, the relationship between Michael and the artists of The Crossing has continued to grow through our work together in Montana and, as a result, we are so looking forward to bringing to a life a second concert-length, biographical work in which there are no degrees of separation; the story-teller is the composer and the subjects of the stories are often in the room. It feels immediate; a welcome directness in a world that sadly often lacks such biographical and musical candor.”

In addition to his work with The Crossing, Gordon recently composed a chamber version of his opera “Acquanetta,” which was commissioned and premiered by the Prototype Festival in New York City. Other works include “8” commissioned by the Amsterdam Cello Octet; “Big Space,” commissioned and presented by the BBC Proms; and three new works for orchestra including “Natural History,” “Observations on Air,” and “The Unchanging Sea.”