Choral Grand Opening:
War & Requiem

Joseph Haydn - Missa in tempore belli (“Paukenmesse”)
Gabriel Fauré - Requiem in D Minor

Thursday, October 29, 2026 @ 7:30PM
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at 10th St.
New York, NY 10011

Soloists to be announced

Voices of Ascension opens its 2026–2027 season under the artistic vision and direction of Dennis Keene with a program that matches musical grandeur with profound humanistic depth. Composed amid the threat of Napoleon’s advancing armies, Mass in Time of War (Paukenmesse) by Joseph Haydn pulses with urgency. Its insistent timpani and bold choral writing transform the Mass into both a plea for mercy and a rallying cry for courage. Beneath the music’s tension lies the spirit of a people facing the shadow of invasion, who refuse to yield. As the work unfolds, Haydn carries the listener from anxiety toward resolve, and by the close of the Agnus Dei, the music affirms an unmistakable conviction that goodness will prevail.

Nearly a century later, Gabriel Fauré took a strikingly different path with his Requiem in D Minor. Where earlier Requiems summon fear of judgment, Fauré turns toward reflections on light and tenderness. The music unfolds with warm, muted colors, a result of an orchestral score without violins for much of the work. Its final luminous In Paradisum offers consolation that feels intimate and deeply personal. For Keene, whose long-standing connection to the French choral tradition has shaped Voices’ artistic identity and soundscape, this Requiem remains a touchstone of our repertoire.

Join us for our season-opening concert as we celebrate the extraordinary creativity of these two composers and the magnificent power of the human voice and the community that choral singing conjures.

Our 2025-26 Season

CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS

Wednesday, December 9, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
Thursday, December 10, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
Monday, December 14, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
Tuesday, December 15, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension

Voices of Ascension Chorus
Dennis Keene, Artistic Director and Conductor
Soloists to be announced

Now in its 36th year, Voices of Ascension’s Candlelight Christmas Concerts are an enduring, cherished New York holiday ritual inside the glowing sanctuary of the Church of the Ascension. Beneath the warm shimmer of candlelight, this annual celebration gathers audiences in community, for music that reflects winter, wonder, and shared tradition.

Illuminated by scores of candelabras and nearly 600 individual candles, the church’s Neo-Gothic architecture becomes a radiant setting for ancient carols, Christmas choral anthems, seasonal masterworks, and beloved family favorites. This immersive concert offers an unforgettable Christmastime experience for listeners of all ages. For 2026, now offering a fourth Candlelight Concert!

These shows will sell out, get your tickets today!

Our 2025-26 Season

Sound Out of Silence

James McVinnie, organ
Voices of Ascension Chorus

Thursday, January 7, 2027 at 7:30PM
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at 10th St.
New York, NY 10011

Nico Muhly - Nativity Cycle (2027)
Tristan Perich - Infinity Gradient (2025)
Pérotin - Viderunt Omnes (c.1198)

Join us for a concert that traces a line from the earliest flowering of Western polyphony to the outer edges of contemporary sound, exploring how music emerges from silence and takes shape in space.

One of the most sought-after organists in contemporary music, James McVinnie, joins Voices of Ascension for the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Nativity Cycle. Conceived as a companion to his Seven O Antiphon Preludes, Muhly’s seven-part cycle — written especially for Voices of Ascension, the Church of Ascension's Manton Memorial Organ, and James McVinnie — unfolds as a meditation on the texts and melodies of the Christmas liturgy, moving from anticipation toward arrival. The program opens with Pérotin’s Viderunt Omnes, one of the defining works of 12th-century organum, a pioneering style of medieval polyphonic music that involves taking Gregorian chant melody and enhancing it by adding harmonizing vocal lines.

The concert culminates with Tristan Perich’s Infinity Gradient, a monumental organ solo featuring 100 loudspeakers installed in the Church of the Ascension, with the audience at the center. A sonically profound, encompassing concert experience, Sound Out of Silence invites us to encounter sound not only as something heard, but as something physical, unfolding within and around the body.

Our 2025-26 Season

Requiem Aeternam: Kathy Romey

Howells, Distler, Brahms and Nystedt

Thursday, February 18, 2027 at 7:30 PM
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at 10th St.
New York, NY 10011

Kathy Saltzman Romey, Guest Conductor

As part of Voices of Ascension’s Choral Visionaries series, we welcome guest conductor Kathy Saltzman Romey, Artistic Director of the Minnesota Chorale and long-time Director of Choral Activities at the University of Minnesota. A frequent collaborator with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Oregon Bach Festival, and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, and a long-time artistic partner of Helmuth Rilling, Romey brings international depth and authority to this searching meditation on mortality.

At the heart of this program stands Hugo Distler’s rarely-heard Dance of Death (Totentanz), presented in a semi-theatrical staging with NAME as narrator. In this stark and expressionistic work, Death summons figures from every walk of life to account for themselves, confronting each with the limits of power, status, and certainty. Composed in 1934 and later censored under the Nazi regime, Dance of Death is seldom performed today, yet it remains a deeply respected work of singular dramatic force, a searing and uncompromising interrogation of what makes a life worth living.

Herbert Howells’s Requiem brings the evening to a radiant conclusion. Its long, arching lines and glowing harmonies create a world of inward movement and restrained intensity. Rather than dramatic lament, Howells offers music of profound consolation, serene yet deeply felt, carrying the listener toward quiet transcendence.

Johannes Brahms’ Warum? (“Why?”) frames the evening’s searching spirit, while Knut Nystedt’s luminous Immortal Bach offers a moment of suspended reflection, completing a journey from questioning to reckoning to repose.

Noted for her “directorial command,” “technical expertise" and commitment to the contemporary vocal art, Beth Willer has led the GRAMMY-nominated Lorelei Ensemble since 2007 to become recognized as one of the country’s leading vocal ensembles. A champion of contemporary music, Willer has collaborated with composers from the U.S. and abroad, leading Lorelei and other ensembles in numerous world, U.S., and regional premieres, including works by Julia Wolfe, Kati Agócs, George Benjamin, Lisa Bielawa, Christopher Cerrone, Peter Gilbert, James Kallembach, David Lang, Jessica Meyer, Scott Ordway, John Supko, Kareem Roustom, and Reiko Yamada. As a recognized conductor of vocal ensembles and contemporary music, Willer has led performances featuring the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Roomful of Teeth, Voices of Ascension, Seraphic Fire, and New York Baroque Inc., and has frequently prepared ensembles for performances with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Cantus, A Far Cry, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Odyssey Opera, in collaboration with Marin Alsop, Thomas Adès, Andris Nelsons, and Giancarlo Guerrero.

Willer is Associate Professor and Director of Choral Studies at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where she leads vocal ensembles and graduate program in choral conducting. A versatile and vibrant clinician, Willer also enjoys frequent work as a guest conductor of student, community, and professional ensembles across the country.

Our 2025-26 Season

Sing Joyfully: Tallis & Byrd

Thursday, March 11, 2027 at 7:30PM
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at 10th St.
New York, NY 10011

This program explores the luminous artistry of the English Renaissance, featuring masterworks by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd: two composers whose music shaped the sound of sacred choral tradition for generations. Voices of Ascension, under the direction of Dennis Keene, brings these timeless works to life with clarity, warmth, and expressive depth.

Explore our Renaissance YouTube Playlist

Our 2025-26 Season

BACH: Mass in B Minor

Thursday, April 15, 2027 @ 7:30PM
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at Tenth St
New York, NY 10011

Johann Sebastian Bach - Mass in B Minor, BWV 232

Voices of Ascension Chorus and Orchestra
Dennis Keene, Artistic Director and Conductor
Soloists to be announced

This pillar of choral literature is one of the greatest works ever written by one of Western music’s greatest composers. Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor stands as the culmination of a lifetime devoted to sacred music, an extraordinary synthesis of devotion and compositional mastery.

Other Concerts in our 2024-25 Season