The Crossing presents world premiere of “Farming” outdoors at Kings Oaks Farm

Grammy Award-winning choir The Crossing presents the world premiere of “Farming,” a stirring new work by Ted Hearne directed by Ashley Tata, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 22 through Sunday, June 25, outdoors at Kings Oaks Farm, 756 Worthington Mill Road, Newtown.

Casual, comfortable clothes, layers, and hiking shoes are recommended, and seating will be on wooden benches and similar surfaces. Tickets are $30-$90 at farming.crossingchoir.org. Contact shannon@crossingchoir.org for special circumstances requiring onsite shuttling.

Written for and commissioned by The Crossing with support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, “Farming” is scored for 24 vocalists with guitars, percussion and electronics. Having been in development for four years, “Farming” promises to be a major event showcasing Hearne’s trademark stylistic eclecticism, driving rhythms, and explosive energy.

What began as an idea to create a piece about food, farming, money, and the environment evolved into a large-scale production about land and its ownership, transfer, and labor, incorporating lighting, sound, and costume design with a six-piece band.

“Farming” tackles the long-tail impact of settler colonialism and its philosophical motivations on agricultural degradation, big tech utopianism, labor alienation, corporate religiosity, and the abstraction of community.

“Farming” promises to be a major event—immediate and virtuosic, with Hearne’s stylistic eclecticism, driving rhythms, and explosive energy...next to a tended field.

Its libretto extensively repurposes and recontextualizes texts, primarily pulled from the letters of colonial-era Quaker businessman (and Pennsylvania namesake) William Penn to and about the Lenape people living on the land he was colonizing, as well as assorted public addresses from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Music is, itself, daring and purposeful. Throughout “Farming’s,” every soulful element of human performance — a beautiful vocal phrase, a touching harmony — is threatened to be enveloped by the sinister application of technological processing.

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