Company Profile
Voices of Ascension Chorus & Orchestra
Company Overview
Voices of Ascension Chorus and Orchestra, founded and directed by conductor Dennis Keene, is one of the world's premier professional choral ensembles. The ensemble's annual series of concerts in New York City, now in its 27th season, and Grammy-nominated recordings on Delos and Naxos have received unequivocal critical acclaim.
VoA’s professional ensemble musicians collectively share the finest credentials in classical music, boasting degrees from and teaching appointments at major conservatories and universities including Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes/New School, New England Conservatory, Eastman, Oberlin, Indiana University – Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU, CUNY, SUNY and Rutgers among others. They regularly perform with orchestras including the NY Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus, The Knights, Philip Glass Ensemble, and Boston Baroque; the Metropolitan, Chicago Lyric, Houston Grand and New York City Operas, with vocal ensembles Conspirare, Lionheart, Seraphic Fire, Waverly Consort; and comprise the core ensemble for many NY professional choruses including Musica Sacra, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. John the Divine, and Trinity Wall Street.
The ensemble shares a commitment to artistic excellence and helps to sustain the choral tradition by supporting emerging soloists in VoA’s Young Artist Program and serving as the chamber ensemble for the VoA Conductor Academy. Recent performances have been described as “inspired” (The New York Times 4/4/15) and “richly colored, impressive, and beautifully balanced” (Wall Street Journal 2/11/15). Voices of Ascension is proud to present the musical integrity and sensitivity of these extraordinary musicians.
The Voices of Ascension mission is to produce exceptional performances of great music for chorus and orchestra. VoA also seeks to sustain the legacy of the choral art through the following programs:
Young Artists Program: identifies exceptionally gifted emerging solo artists and gives them the opportunity to perform in a world-class choral setting, under the direction of Dennis Keene.
VoA Conductor Academy: An intensive conducting workshop with Dennis Keene, featuring talks, master classes, and private lessons, for serious students as well as veteran professionals. Participants conduct the Voices of Ascension chorus and chamber orchestra.
Voices Online: records VoA performances of choral masterworks live, in concert, for free online distribution to a new and larger audience.
For more information, visit our website voicesofascension.org or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/voicesofascension
Company History
GRAMMY-nominated Voices of Ascension, founded in 1990 and directed by conductor Dennis Keene, presents exceptional performances of great works of music for chorus and orchestra. Over the course of its 27 year history, Voices of Ascension has produced an annual concert series, released GRAMMY-nominated recordings, and engaged in artistic collaborations with the San Francisco Symphony, Mostly Mozart Festival, José Limón Dance, the Mark Morris Dance Group, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and others. These performances have won acclaim for their “sheer musical excellence” (NY Times), the chorus for being the “finest in American choral music” (Stereophile), and Dr. Keene as the “leader most widely touted to pick up the mantle of Robert Shaw” (NY Times).