Kicking off Dessoff’s 2025-2026 season is a performance of Adolphus Hailstork’s The World Called on Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. at Brick Church. Known for blending African, American, and European traditions and influenced by his studies with Nadia Boulanger, Hailstork’s work is based on Rita Dove's poem, Testimonial, that evokes themes of nostalgia, youth, and promise.  

The Dessoff Choirs also perform Herbert Howells’s Requiem and Magnificat - originally written for St. Paul’s Cathedral in London - featuring organist Dr. Raymond Nagem, and a reprise of Tania León’s It’s a Journey, commissioned for the ensemble’s centennial with poetry by the late Nikki Giovanni. Steven Ryan joins The Dessoff Choirs on piano.

Herbert Howells, Requiem
Herbert Howells, Magnificat
Adolphus Hailstork, The World Called
Tania León, It’s a Journey

Brick Church

Photo credits:

By Clive Barda - Original publication: Portrait photographImmediate source: National Portrait Gallery, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61862241

SamuelCFTP, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons