Tonality

Tonality is a two-time GRAMMY Award-winning choral ensemble, founded in Los Angeles in 2016 by Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake and now in its tenth year. Blake built the group to reflect the cultures and ethnicities of the city around it. Within a year the mission had widened: concerts on themes of social justice, made to move a room toward empathy and community action. Tonality is best known for programs on subjects choral music rarely takes on, among them gun violence, homelessness, refugees, climate change, mental health, women's rights, and voting. Its signature work is Running From, Running To, an eight-movement suite for chorus, soloists, and orchestra on the life of Ahmaud Arbery, co-written by Blake and Ogi. It premiered at the Wallis Annenberg Center in 2025 and anchors the 2026 album Songs of Remembering (Bright Shiny Things), recorded with Wild Up and soloists Angel Blue, Jamal M. Moore, and Ogi, with spoken texts by Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones. The GRAMMYs came with composer Carla Patullo and the Scorchio Quartet, for So She Howls (2024) and Nomadica (2026). Tonality also holds the 2020 Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, and released its debut album, Sing About It, in 2019. Composer collaborators include Reena Esmail, Shawn Kirchner, Zanaida Robles, Moira Smiley, Joe Trapanese, and Gaayatri Kaundinya. Tonality has performed with Taylor Mac, Pete Townshend, and Lara Downes.