Dennis Keene, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Voices of Ascension Chorus & Orchestra, has become one of the most respected conductors of the French choral-orchestral repertoire.

He grew up in Los Angeles, and began to play the organ at a very early age, holding his first church organist position at the age of nine. He moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School under Vernon de Tar. He received the BM, MM, and DMA degrees and the Gaston Dethier Organ Prize. Dr. Keene spent the winter of 1977 in Paris, studying privately with Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, André Marchal, and André Isoir. He was active as a recitalist until an interest in conducting led him to do serious studies in conducting (at the Pierre Monteux School for Orchestral Conductors, with Charles Bruck in Paris, and with John Nelson at Juilliard). His love for professional choral music can be traced to his work as organist for Gregg Smith and Roger Wagner.

In addition to his work with the Voices of Ascension, Dennis Keene is also Organist and Choirmaster of Church of the Ascension and a member of the faculty of Manhattan School of Music. He is a member of the Board of Dir-ectors of Chorus America and has served on the Choral Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. He regularly gives workshops and masterclasses on conducting and on choral music.

In 1989 he was Artistic Director of the first complete retrospective of the music of Maurice Duruflé and conducted the complete choral works. In 1992 he conducted ballet for the first time, in a gala concert in Carnegie Hall. In 1993 Dennis Keene and his Voices of Ascension began their highly successful series of recordings with Delos, International.

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