Jonathan Bradley
executive director

Jonathan Bradley is Executive Director of Voices of Ascension, one of New York City’s leading professional choral ensembles. Working in partnership with founding Artistic Director Dennis Keene and the Board of Directors, he is helping guide the organization through a period of artistic and institutional renewal, shaping a vision rooted in musical excellence, creative risk-taking, artist empowerment, and deeper community engagement.

Since joining Voices, Jonathan has played a central role in developing new artistic initiatives and season programming, including Choral Visionaries, the organization’s guest conductor series, and ambitious immersive projects such as Mannahatta, Canticle of the Sun, and Sound Out of Silence. These programs bring together world premieres, contemporary artists, and large-scale sonic experiences that expand the possibilities of the choral concert experience while honoring Voices’ longstanding artistic legacy.

Jonathan brings more than twenty-five years of leadership experience across New York City’s cultural landscape. Prior to joining Voices of Ascension, he served as Executive Director of The Crossing, where he led the Grammy Award-winning ensemble through six years of transformational growth. During his tenure, The Crossing doubled its production output and budget, commissioned and premiered 24 new works, released 12 albums, and developed major collaborations with Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. During this period, the ensemble received three Grammy Awards, nine nominations, and was named Musical America’s 2023 Ensemble of the Year.

Earlier in his career, Jonathan spent a decade at Carnegie Hall, where he co-founded the institution’s social media program, launched audience engagement initiatives across departments, and co-produced the Hall’s first viral digital project, Conduct Us, viewed more than four million times worldwide. He later served as Chief Marketing Officer of Primephonic, now Apple Music Classical, where he explored new intersections between classical music, technology, and digital audience development through collaborations with artists and ensembles around the world.

Jonathan holds a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MBA from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business. Recognized for his work in arts leadership, innovation, and nonprofit management, he has been an invited speaker at Yale University, Columbia University, and New York University.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Jonathan has dedicated nearly three decades to volunteer leadership, community-building, and publishing through Diamond Way Buddhist Centers USA. Since 2008, he has taught internationally throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and New Zealand. His service has included roles as a founding board member of Diamond Way Buddhist Centers USA, President of the New York City center, and Co-Executive Editor of Buddhism Today magazine.

Wesley Chinn - Artistic Administrator

Wesley’s career in arts administration dates back to high school, and encompasses positions at Carnegie Hall, where he was an Associate Manager in Artistic Programming, The Little Orchestra Society, and the New York Collegium. He also founded and ran a successful small opera company, Opera Omnia, and produced PDQ Bach’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.

A native of northern California, Wesley holds a degree in music and women’s studies from Harvard University. He has maintained an active life as a professional choral singer, music educator, and instrumentalist, and he is the music director of the Brooklyn Outlaw Chorus. Wesley lives with his wife Jennifer and their two children in Bushwick, and he has been known to cook with them live on Facebook.

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Wesley has also been a guest curator of our Voices of Connection blog.

Ray Henninger - Programs and Production Manager

Ray Henninger is a performer, educator and administrator from New York, and is delighted to be serving as the Artistic Operations and Production Manager, and Music Librarian for Voices of Ascension, while also overseeing the organization’s Marketing and Communications portfolio. Following joint degrees in Performance and Arts Administration from SMU, Ray spent five years as a professional French horn player, music director and conductor, podcast and theater-writer/developer, choral singer and public school music teacher in Dallas, Texas, and holds experience in multiple elements of nonprofit performing arts administration (development, communications, artistic support); stage and tour management. Producing live concerts and recorded media is the throughline of all they do at Voices of Ascension.

A native of far upstate NY, Ray takes inputs seriously, and has worked with managing farmers markets, tree-to-bottle cider-making, and cooking for others, in addition to artistic production. Now based in South Brooklyn with a beloved partner and personable cat, Ray is a partner in DFW jazz club Revelers Hall, a former member of the board at The Wild Detectives, and is a member of Local-802, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Green-Wood Cemetery, and four public library systems. They enjoy cycling everywhere, reading books and meeting people on park benches, restoring vintage pedal steel guitars and brass instruments, hall and gallery acoustics, listening to live concert recordings, landscape architecture, and both really loud and really quiet music.

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Carolyn (Susie) Braden - Choral Personnel Manager

Carolyn Braden oversees the selection and contracting of professional singers for all Voices of Ascension concerts. Since 1999 she has assisted Voices Artistic Director Dennis Keene on his vocal choices to create the sound he seeks for the featured repertoire. Carolyn is the liaison between Voices and the professional singers. She majored in vocal performance at Missouri State University and The University of Texas (Austin) prior to moving to New York. She was a founding member of Voices of Ascension, and she has also performed with Concert Chorale of New York, The New York Choral Artists, Musica Sacra, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, and various other professional choral groups in New York City as both an ensemble member and soloist. Carolyn recently retired from her job as an Executive Secretary at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she worked for 12 years.

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Carrie Elston - Director of Institutional Advancement

Carrie Elston received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College. She is a Director of The Prospect Hill Foundation, and she serves on the boards of Bronx River Alliance, Hunter Art Advisory Board, and Third Street Music School. 

Carrie is also a multimedia artist, and her work has been shown in museums and galleries around the world, from Bronx Museum in New York to Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. She has held a number of residencies, including the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program and Vermont Studio Center, and she is currently a BRIC Media Arts Fellow. Carrie is co-founder of the new media gallery and tech incubator IMC Lab + Gallery, and the Young Associates patron group of the Chelsea Art Museum. 

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Diane Lesser - Orchestra Personnel Manager

Diane Lesser is the principal oboist and personnel manager for the Voices of Ascension Orchestra. One of the top studio recording oboists in the country, she is the principal oboist of the New York Pops, Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, and the Greenwich Symphony and Chamber Players. She performs regularly with dozens of New York City-area orchestras and choruses, and at prestigious summer music festivals across the country. Diane holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Juilliard School and Queens College. Active in the world of commercial music, she can be heard on recent recordings accompanying Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, Lena Park, Barry Manilow and Paul Simon. She has recorded for movie soundtracks and hundreds of TV and radio commercials, and performed at such diverse venues as the Grammy Awards, Sesame Street, the 1992 Olympics in France, Z100’s Jingle Ball, The White House, and as soloist at Carnegie Hall with Alexander Schneider.

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bryan fisher - Operations manager

Bryan Fisher is a musician and arts administrator from South Florida. A saxophonist by training, he studied under Sigurd Rascher acolyte Dr. Patrick Meighan while earning a degree in Music Production and Business from Florida State University. During his time at FSU, Bryan served as Music Director of WVFS Tallahassee 89.7, helping shape one of the country’s longest-running college radio stations.

His professional experience spans both the nonprofit and commercial music worlds, including work at the multi-platinum Quad Studios in New York City as an audio engineer. In arts administration, Bryan brings a multidisciplinary perspective shaped equally by artistic training and organizational leadership. He is particularly interested in how arts organizations can balance tradition with innovation while remaining financially sustainable and culturally relevant.

Alongside his work in classical music administration, Bryan maintains a leisurely interest in contemporary popular music, athletic competition, and literature.

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