Press Kit
About Transcend Chorale
TRANScend is New York's first trans / gender-expansive classical vocal ensemble, exploring the unique aural aesthetic of trans and other gender-atypical voices singing a thousand year-old canon of concert, liturgical and art music from around the world. We’re the first trans ensemble to sing the liturgy in an Episcopalian mass, and since then we’ve been putting trans voices and perspectives in musical spaces all over New York City. Singing together is a human right, and our purpose lies in extending that right to everyone in the trans and gender-expansive community.
HanNah Cai-Sobel
Director, TRANScend Chorale
Hannah is an NYC-based vocalist, conductor, and composer, inspired wholeheartedly by the human experience. They draw on the modes and textures of early chant and polyphony in their own writing, forcing age-old techniques to “crash headfirst” into contemporary practices and harmonies. They are the co-president of their opera company, Granite Planet, which aims to promote unconventional operas in unconventional venues, and are dedicated to providing debut opportunities for emerging singers as well as newcomers in the audience.
About The Ambassadors
The philosophical existence of the TRANScend Ambassadors is to be just that – a visible Ambassador to the outside communities within which we perform. Since our inception, we’ve been putting classical choral music in places you’d never expect across the tri-state area. Over the past four years, we’ve commissioned multiple new works, created a large-scale requiem for Trans Day of Remembrance, performed at festivals, art spaces, and The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as well as singing the national anthem for a Major League Soccer game.
Felix Graham, Ed.D.C.T
Artistic Director & Director, Ambassadors
Felix Graham, ED.D.C.T., is an NYC-based musician, writer and teaching artist whose practice explores the juxtaposition of voice, gender & identity. He has had two careers as a performer: initially as a classical singer & pianist, then post-transition branching into cabaret/queer musical theatre, resulting in, among other things, singing as the first openly trans-masculine artist at the Friar’s Club. As a teaching artist, Dr, Graham works with trans/GNC singers and gives workshops nationally on trans voice, music & identity, and creating secure musical learning spaces for marginalized communities.
Transcend Ambassadors
Photo Credit: Human Flower Productions
Photo Credit: Human Flower Productions
Transcend Chorale
Photo Credit: Pete Gibson
Photo Credit: Jerome Williams, NYPL.
