Voices of Ascension Presents Canticle of the Sun on May 21 at Church of the Ascension

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katlyn Morahan | Morahan Arts and Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646-378-9386

Voices of Ascension Presents Canticle of the Sun
on May 21 at Church of the Ascension

Guest Conductor Beth Willer Leads Voices of Ascension in a 
Blend of Contemporary and 20th Century Repertoire Including the World
Premiere of a New Work by Celeste Oram

Concert Launches Voices of Ascension’s New 
“Choral Visionaries Initiative,” an Ongoing Collaboration With 
Today’s Most Innovative Choral Leaders

“richly colored, impressive, and beautifully balanced” –Wall Street Journal

“a dynamic concert […] beautifully sung” –I Care If You Listen

www.voicesofascension.org 

April 16, 2026 (New York, NY) — Voices of Ascension – the New York City-based professional chorus dedicated to sharing the transformative power of choral music through performances, commissions, and community engagement – presents their final concert of the season, Canticle of the Sun, on Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at Church of the Ascension.

Special guest conductor Beth Willer—Founder and Artistic Director of Lorelei Ensemble and Director of Choral Studies at the Peabody Institute—leads Voices of Ascension in the New York City premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Canticle of the Sun—a radiant work for chorus and solo cello originally composed for Mstislav Rostropovich, with text by St. Francis of Assisi—featuring cellist Tommy Mesa.

The performance also includes the East Coast premiere of Ellen Reid’s immersive work Oscillations: 100 Years and Forever, featuring newly reimagined NYC visuals, and a world premiere by New Zealand/New York composer Celeste Oram titled All my salt falls short. 

World-renowned Messiaen interpreter Jon Gillock joins the program to perform Apparition de l’Église éternelle. In this striking ten-minute organ meditation, Messiaen evokes an eternal, divine reality, an immense, luminous presence rising out of silence and embodying a vision of spiritual eternity. As Gillock describes it, the work reflects the moment when an incontrovertible sense of love and certainty arises within, impossible to ignore and forever transformative.

“I’m sort of grappling with that conversation between the things here on this earth and the things that we’re always trying to understand that are beyond this earth,” Beth Willer said. “And I think this is an opportunity in this program and with this ensemble, to really be with composers like Messiaen and Gubaidulina, who were deeply religious and also deeply progressive. And to think about how these sacred spaces deserve to be part of contemporary conversation and deserve to be spaces where we are making some of our boldest statements.”

Willer describes the program in more detail in this video.

The collaboration with Willer launches Voices of Ascension’s new Choral Visionaries

Initiative, inviting some of the most exciting choral leaders of today to take the stage with Voices as artistic directors, working with its community of artists to shape original concert projects from the ground up.

Exploring the opportunity to welcome both established and emerging voices into the resonant setting of the Church of the Ascension, Voices offers each guest conductor a meaningful platform in New York City while giving audiences the opportunity to encounter bold artistic leadership, distinctive musical perspectives, and new repertoire alongside the traditions that have long defined the ensemble’s work. Upcoming guest conductors include Kathy Saltzman Romey in February 2027 and additional conductors to be announced.

In addition, each season, Voices will release a professionally filmed concert video and digital platform for the Choral Visionaries initiative, 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 Voices’ legacy and future.

Program Information
Canticle of the Sun, Featuring Guest Conductor: Beth Willer
Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Church of the Ascension | 36 Fifth Avenue at 10th St. | New York, NY 10011
Link: https://www.voicesofascension.org/willer26

Program:
Celeste Oram - All my salt falls short (World Premiere)
Ellen Reid - Oscillations: One Hundred Years and Forever (East Coast Premiere)
Sofia Gubaidulina - Canticle of the Sun (New York City Premiere)
Messiaen - Apparition de l'Eglise éternelle
Messiaen/Gottwald - Louange a l'eternite de Jesus

Artists:
Voices of Ascension
Beth Willer, guest conductor
Tommy Mesa, cello
Jon Gillock, organ

About Beth Willer
Noted for her “directorial command” and “technical expertise" and commitment to the contemporary vocal art, Founder and Artistic Director Beth Willer has led Lorelei Ensemble since 2007 to become recognized as one of the country’s most highly regarded vocal ensembles. A champion of contemporary music, Willer has collaborated with composers from the U.S. and abroad, leading Lorelei and other ensembles under her leadership in numerous world, U.S., and regional premieres, including works by David Lang, Julia Wolfe, George Benjamin, Kati Agócs, Lisa Bielawa, Kareem Roustom, Jessica Meyer, Sungji Hong, Reiko Yamada, Peter Gilbert, Scott Ordway, and John Supko. As a conductor and recognized leader of vocal ensembles, Willer has been invited to lead performances featuring Bang on a Can All-Stars, Seraphic Fire, New York Baroque, and Roomful of Teeth, and has prepared ensembles for performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Cantus, A Far Cry, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Odyssey Opera.

Willer is Associate Professor and Director of Choral Studies at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where she leads vocal ensembles and is designing the conservatory's new graduate degree in choral conducting. Previous work includes academic appointments at Bucknell University, Harvard University, and Boston Conservatory, and preparations for conductors of the Boston Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Odyssey Opera. A passionate educator and conductor of young artists, Willer has led ensembles at Boston University's Tanglewood Institute, Walnut Hill School, New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, and Boston Arts Academy. A versatile and vibrant clinician, Willer also enjoys work as a guest conductor for student and professional ensembles alike.

Willer holds degrees from Boston University (D.M.A. and M.M.) and Luther College (B.A.). Her teachers include Ann Howard Jones, Scott Metcalfe, Weston Noble, Jameson Marvin, and Mark Shapiro.

About Tommy Mesa
Cuban-American cellist Dr. Tommy Mesa has established himself as one of the most charismatic, innovative, and engaging performers of his generation. The recipient of Lincoln Center’s 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Sphinx Organization’s 2023 Medal of Excellence, its highest honor, Mesa has appeared as soloist at the Supreme Court of the United States on four occasions and with major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Indianapolis, Madison, New Jersey, San Antonio, and Santa Barbara, among others. Mesa gave the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s cello concerto Divided in 2022 and has been the exclusive soloist since, performing at major halls across the United States and Brazil, including Miami’s New World Center, Nashville’s Schermerhorn Center, and Carnegie Hall. His orchestral recording debut of the work was released in July 2023 on Deutsche Grammophon.

In addition to serving as Artist in Residence with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in the 2024-25 season, orchestral highlights this season include debuts with the Delaware, Glacier, and Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestras as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, a return to the Madison Symphony, and a performance of the rarely heard Lucid Dreams by Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock with the Windsor Symphony. Last season, Mesa celebrated enthusiastic performances with the Calgary and Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestras and the Ann Arbor, Columbus, Greenwich, Knoxville, Quad City, and Reading  Symphony Orchestras, among others.

About Jon Gillock
Jon Gillock grew up in Oklahoma, where he began studying the piano at an early age. He received the BM with high honors and the MM degrees from the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville); his major teacher there was John Cowell. He did graduate study at the College of Church Musicians, Washington Cathedral, with Leo Sowerby and Paul Callaway. He earned his DMA degree from The Juilliard School under Vernon de Tar (organ) and Gustave Reese (musicology). It was while he was still a student there that he began his long teaching association with Juilliard. Later, he studied with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory.

Press and public alike proclaim American organist Jon Gillock for his sensitive and moving performances. Known for his ability to express and interpret the mystical and sublime, the deep and profound, to communicate with and move his audiences, he is especially fond of performing the “French spiritual repertoire”. This includes the music of such composers as César Franck, Maurice Duruflé, Louis Vierne, Nicolas de Grigny, François Couperin, Charles Tournemire, and, of course, Olivier Messiaen and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Often a soloist in international festivals, he has also been a featured recitalist and master teacher for conventions of both the American Guild of Organists and the Royal Canadian College of Organists. In 1996 he was chosen to give the opening recital for the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in New York City.

About Voices of Ascension
Voices of Ascension is one of New York City’s premier professional choral ensembles, dedicated to presenting masterworks for chorus and orchestra at the highest artistic level. Founded in 1990 by Artistic Director Dennis Keene, Voices has built an international reputation for its exquisite choral artistry, innovative programming, and commitment to expanding the choral canon.

Performances by the Grammy-nominated ensemble have been praised as “richly colored, impressive, and beautifully balanced” (Wall Street Journal) and “inspired” (The New York Times). The ensemble’s landmark Duruflé Festival, the first-ever complete retrospective of the composer’s works, established Voices as a leader in presenting comprehensive explorations of major choral composers. Since then, Voices of Ascension has continued to champion both historical and contemporary repertoire, with a special commitment to new music, including commissions and premieres—particularly by female composers—in partnership with the Sorel Organization.

Throughout its 35-year history, Voices of Ascension has produced an acclaimed annual concert series, released multiple 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. The ensemble has also been a longtime partner of The Church of the Ascension, home to the Manton Memorial Organ, the only French-built organ in the United States and a direct link to Voices’ deep engagement with French sacred music traditions.

The organization plays an important role in mentoring emerging artists through its Voices of Promise program, which has supported over 50 young professional vocal soloists, and in creating community connections through Voices of Experience, an initiative bringing choral music to NYC’s senior centers.

About Dennis Keene
Dennis Keene is Artistic Director and Conductor of the Voices of Ascension. Known internationally through his many concerts and recordings with Voices of Ascension as well as his regular guest appearances as conductor and teacher, he is one of the leading choral conductors in the world today.

Recognized early as an exceptional organist, Dennis Keene studied at The Juilliard School, where he earned the BM, MM, and DMA degrees and the coveted Gaston Dethier Organ Prize as a student of Vernon de Tar. Dr. Keene also studied privately in Paris with Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, André Marchal, and André Isoir.

In addition to his work with Voices of Ascension, Dr. Keene continues as Organist and Choirmaster of Church of the Ascension in New York City. He served for many years on the Board of Directors of Chorus America, the national service organization for the choral field, which honored him with the first Louis Botto Award for “innovative action and entrepreneurial zeal in developing a professional ensemble of exceptional artistic quality.” He has also served on the Choral Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts and on the Music Panel of the New York State Council on the Arts.

From 1998 to 2003, Maestro Keene presented a major summer institute for the training of conductors and singers: The Dennis Keene Choral Festival, in Kent, Connecticut. In 1993, he began his recording association with Delos International, with which he has recorded such best-selling CD’s as Beyond Chant, the Duruflé Album, and the Berlioz Te Deum. This series of highly acclaimed recordings with Voices of Ascension has secured international recognition for both conductor and chorus and become the standard for first-ranked ensembles worldwide.

# # #