From the beginning, Voices of Ascension has been shaped by big, deeply held artistic ideas. Dennis Keene’s landmark Duruflé Festival, the first complete retrospective of the composer’s published works, remains a guiding example of what this organization values: depth, rigor, and the courage to follow through on a musical vision. That spirit continues to inspire how we think about our future. As our history teaches us, meaningful artistic work does not happen by accident. It happens when vision is matched with purpose and commitment.

As Voices of Ascension enters its 37th season, we find ourselves thinking not only about where we have been, but about the next 37 years ahead. It is a reflective and inspiring time for our organization, and a natural question emerges: how do we build a future while remaining grounded in the legacy that has defined us? This season, we are pleased to share the first answer to that question with you: the Voices of Ascension Choral Visionaries Guest Conductor program.

Guided by the values and aspirations that have shaped Voices of Ascension from the start, the Choral Visionaries program invites some of the most exciting choral leaders of today to take the stage with us as artistic directors, working with our community of artists to shape original concert projects from the ground up. We see this as a chance to welcome both established and emerging voices into the Church of the Ascension, offering them a meaningful platform in New York City and giving our audiences the opportunity to encounter bold artistic leadership, new voices, and a diverse mix of the familiar and the new in an intimate and resonant space. Our May 21 Canticle of the Sun concert with Beth Willer marks the start of this ongoing series, which will continue to unfold with our next program featuring Kathy Saltzman Romey in February 2027.

Looking beyond the concert hall, Choral Visionaries also embraces new ways of presenting our work. Each season, we will release a professionally filmed concert video and digital platform for each Choral Visionaries project, paired with an additional filmed concert and recording of one of Dennis Keene’s singular programs from the same season. Together, these releases will live in conversation with one another and reflect an ongoing dialogue between our legacy and our future.

With Choral Visionaries, we affirm a simple idea: great vision leads to great music.

Requiem aeternam

Guest Conductor Kathy Saltzman Romey
Coming February 18, 2027

As part of Voices of Ascension’s Choral Visionaries: Guest Conductor series, we welcome Kathy Saltzman Romey, long-time Director of Choral Activities at the University of Minnesota and Artistic Director of the Minnesota Chorale. 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 and transcendence.

At the heart of the program stands Hugo Distler’s rarely heard Totentanz (“Dance of Death”), presented in a semi-theatrical staging. 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, Totentanz is rarely performed today, yet it remains a deeply respected work of singular dramatic force, a searing and uncompromising choral meditation on mortality.

Herbert Howells’s luminous Requiem brings the evening to a radiant conclusion. Its long, arching lines and glowing harmonies create a world of inward reflection 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. Coming February 2027.

Guest Conductor Danielle Jagelski
April 2025

On April 8, 2025, Voices of Ascension presented Voices of Mannahatta at The Church of the Ascension, exploring the history of the land on which our concert hall stands, on the unceded lands of the Munsee Lenape, Mannahatta Island.

In collaboration with The Eagle Project—NYC's only Lenape-led performing arts organization—this concert featured the multimedia world premiere of Holy Ground by composer and Guest Conductor Danielle Olana Jagelski (Oneida/Ojibwe). Written for five Indigenous classical singers from the Mvskogee, Acoma Pueblo, Cherokee, Anishinaabe, and Taíno Nations, with video imagery created by visual artist Sage Ahebah Addington (Navajo). The program also included performances of Raven Chacon's 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning composition Voiceless Mass featuring The International Contemporary Ensemble and the Church’s Manton Memorial Organ, Andrew Balfour's Vision Chant, and Cris Derksen’s Triumph of the Euro-Christ (a US premiere).