Dennis Keene, D.M.A., Organist & Choirmaster at the Church of the Ascension, 1981-2026Please use the comment field below to offer your reminiscences of and tributes to Dennis Keene on the occasion of his retirement as organist and choirmaster. Comments will appear below after they’ve been approved by moderators, and select memories and tributes will appear in a book being presented to Dr. Keene in appreciation for his years of service to this community.
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David Cholcher
1 month ago
Dennis Keene is such a part of our collective hearts and lives. I share a picture from our marriage ten years ago. It speaks to qualities I so appreciate in Dennis. Music is central to our story. As he has for 45 years, Dennis insured that the music was both beautifully wrought and filled with meaning. Dennis is a good time. Planning was serious without feeling like anything but fun. Dennis cares deeply about Ascension. Looking closely at the photo, he included long-time choir folks that we hold dear, including Judy Cope, Denise Kelly, and G Jan Jones. Dennis is game to what the situation requires. He learned a new postlude and graciously included our Grace Church Choral Society friends. Most of all, Dennis has been a steadfast friend and colleague. Dennis, you are treasured and loved. Thank you for everything.
James Donegan
1 month ago
Dennis has always made me feel like my contribution to the choir is valuable. In an art form where blending in is the goal, having your individual artistry acknowledged and appreciated is so meaningful.
But I think perhaps Dr. Keene’s greatest contribution is the culture he creates: we’re there to make beautiful music and inspire worship, but he populates the choir with good, kind, decent people. I first sang at Ascension in 1999, and now — 27 years later — it is my spiritual and musical home. I am so, so grateful.
Derek Baker
1 month ago
I met Dennis almost 40 years ago when I joined Ascension. He had only been in this job as organist and choirmaster for 8 years. Ascension still held “Services of Music”; Voices of Ascension wouldn’t come into being for another year. He has always been among the brightest lights at this parish for me.
As my friend, he has patiently answered my many nerdy music history questions over all these years. He has said things that made me laugh out loud more times than I can remember — and nearly none of which I can repeat in polite company, so don’t ask me to. When I was planning the music for Tom’s and my Evensong wedding, he gamely went along with my idiosyncratic choices (we processed in to “Earth and All Stars” and sang a Taizé setting of the Apostles’ Creed, for example) and he guided me to others. To this day, the organ prelude he suggested — Variations on “Veni, Creator” by Maurice Duruflé — remains one of my favorites; I’d asked him to pick something that would show off the recently dedicated Manton Memorial Organ to our wedding guests, and it certainly does!
Beyond our friendship and his musical abilities and discernment, however, I have been deeply appreciative of how his vocation has shaped my own experience of worship, of communion, of God incarnate in human-made things like bread and wine…and music. Once we were discussing an organist at another church who had forgotten which verse the congregation was on; he inadvertently started in on another verse after everyone had finished the hymn. Dennis was shocked that a church organist would have not been aware of the verses as he was playing them. And that, I think, is the secret to why Dennis’s participation in our services has always been such a boon to us in the pews.
I have seen “Dr. Keene” perform many times, and he is unequaled in this work. When he’s performing, however, he’s wearing white-tie, standing on a podium, and bringing out the best in a group of trained, professional singers. But when Dennis has been at the organ on Sundays or conducting an a capella choir — some of them talented professionals, the others talented volunteers — he has been worshiping right alongside us and helping to lead us to a deeper relationship with the One who blesses our own relationships and shows Himself to us in bread and wine…and music.
Just to add: I will always love this picture of Dennis and my husband Tom taken on the day of our wedding. Not only because, as we’ve discovered in trying to celebrate him upon his retirement, there are very few photographs of Dennis! He’s been sneaky that way.
Rev. Mark Glidden
1 month ago
I have a treasured memory of Dr. Keene and how gracious and kind he is. My son was 4 years old and wanted to see the organ and Dr. Keene invited my son to sit next to him at the organ console and played something for him. I have the picture in my mind to this day and the glowing smile on my son’s face. After this Dennis said something like if my son should unfortunately want to take up a musical instrument, please make it something like a guitar. Today my son is a successful musician and guess what he plays? Yup, all kinds of guitars as well a little piano and drums.
Gretchen Dumler
1 month ago
Like Cordelia…. I cannot speak, m’lord!
Ftr. John Merz
1 month ago
Rev John Merz Rector Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Brooklyn NY
I served as Episcopal Chaplain to NYU and surrounding campuses from 2005 to 2010. Others will speak far better than I can about Dennis’s musical genius and his gift for nurturing the Voices of Ascension into a choir of national reputation. I want to speak about Dennis the person — someone I count as a friend.
My office was tucked against the back south wall of the parish building, stacked in what I always thought of as a Hollywood Squares arrangement. I was top left. Dennis was middle row, right at the top of the stairs. I stopped in at least twice a day. He’d explain some nuance of music in plain, accessible terms, but more often we’d dissolve into uncontrollable laughter over life’s oddities and ironies. Dennis has a raucous, wry, utterly sharp sense of humor.
Every day, climbing those stairs toward his office, I’d start smiling before I even arrived. If he was deep in work and only waved, I felt a little crestfallen — our exchange would have to wait. Even years later, after I’d taken a job in Brooklyn, passing that building on the way somewhere else would trigger the same feeling: heart lifting, already anticipating his explosive laugh and those almost-teary eyes of pure delight.
I should say something about what that friendship meant professionally. Campus ministry — working with young people — is often treated as second-tier work in the clergy world. It can be isolating. That Dennis embraced me, respected me, and folded me into the life of that building with such warmth and without hesitation mattered more than I can easily say. It gave me footing. It gave me a sense of belonging at a moment when I needed it.
Dennis is a teacher, a virtuoso, a devoted shepherd to decades of musicians. But to me he was a friend to a new priest — funny, warm, and generous in a way that always reminded me you have to laugh. No matter how hard things get, or how absurd, it all shifts once you find the delightful absurdity in our collective self-seriousness.
Dennis, you’ve earned every accolade as a musician. But your wild humor, your tear-eyed laughter, your support, your kindness — those are what I’ll carry longest.
With much love to you my friend,
John Merz
Allison Gish Jenkins
20 days ago
I met Dennis only 5 years ago, when I auditioned for Voices of Ascension and the Church of the Ascension choir, and in that short time, these choirs have become a highlight of my musical career. VoA was the first major chorus I was invited to sing in, and it has opened numerous other doors for me in the NYC choral scene. I’m grateful to Dennis for hearing my potential and hearing my value when I didn’t have a terribly impressive choral resume. Getting to work with Dennis, learn from his decades of experience studying great choral masterworks, and sharing in his joy and delight at music making has added vast swaths of color to my life, and that is utterly priceless! While I’ll miss working Dennis in the Church of the Ascension choir, I’m excited to continue working together in Voices of Ascension!
Charlie Spencer
17 days ago
Dennis! You have made our family’s world a more joyful and musical place. Your passion and dedication to creating gold standard performances that challenge, comfort, inspire, enlighten, and entertain us simultaneously is a gift. Thank you. Wishing you all the best in your retirement.
love,
Isabel Spencer “Jr.”
Bora Yoon
16 days ago
Dennis Keene is an extraordinary human. I am so so very grateful to know this musical genius, and wonder, a consummate artist, musical polymath, and the most warm-hearted, kind, and compassionate soul, who has elevated the lives of so many, through extraordinary music-making, and community.
My life, ears, voice, and music-making has been shaped and changed by Dennis’ artistry, having sung with Ascension since the age of 26, and am grateful and musically indebted to Dennis, for such rich and inspiring performances, concerts, and services over the last 2 decades, and sharing his wealth of knowledge and talents with those who are lucky to know his brilliance.
Dennis’ ability to bring out the most plush, and beautiful sounds from Voices and Ascension choir with just a gesture, or a singular word — or a closing of his eyes and movement of hands speaks volumes to the enormity of musicality that lives within him. I know no other, who speaks the words “bon”, “swell”, and “dapper” — as Dennis is timeless, beyond boundaries, and eras, living in the place he loves to be — which is the highest, most elevated moments of great music-making and artistry.
From the vision of the Manton memorial organ being realized over many many moons and seasons, to his care and attention to every logistic, making all the pieces of the weekly services, and Voices seasons run with great aplomb and brilliant splendor — Dennis’ tireless efforts and work have been foundational in shaping the culture and presence of art, and elevation at Ascension — and his absence will be palpable — as he is truly an original, and no one is like him. This being what is so magical about working with him, and alongside his dedication, rigor, and artistry.
A shapeshifter, Dennis’ ability to be simultaneously an eagle of great prominence and sovereignty, and a 12 year old boy is astonishing. His playful nature, incredible sense of humor, dry wit, and compassionate heart are a delight to know, and be around — which juxtaposes the seriousness which he dedicates himself to his craft, at the highest level.
Many eras have passed at Ascension, and Dennis has been at the helm for 4 and a half of those decades, bringing prominence, accolade — as well as heart, compassion, and community with equal measure through the doors of Ascension.
I cannot thank Ascension and Dennis enough, for making me the composer, and performer/creator that I am, inspiring and nurturing me musically weekly, providing vertical space and stillness in a city that grounded me spiritually and musically, during my 20s and 30s and a seminal time in my development as a person, musician, and composer.
I am indebted to Dennis for supporting and helping realize my electroacoustic choral and vocal works. My opera and record ‘Sunken Cathedral’ couldn’t have been possible without Dennis and Ascension’s support, featuring Ascension’s acoustic, organ, architecture, chants and lessons learned weekly in sermons, and integrated into music, influenced and steeped in the legacy, mysticism, archetypal forces, discernment and navigation, during my time at Ascension with Dennis.
Thank you, Dennis, for being open minded enough to foster my creative out of the box aims, proposals, interdisciplinary and multimedia collaborations in the sacred Ascension space and being such a steadfast ally, confidante, supporter, friend, and mentor — on the road of being practicing creative artists.
You are a treasure, and true gem, of a human, dear Dennis. God bless you, and that enormous heart of yours. Thank you for all the truly transcendent, buoyant, beautiful, and majestic places you have transported us to, through your music and artistry. How you will be missed. Thank you for sharing your extraordinary life force with us.
Hats off, my dear mentor, and teacher.
May today be a beautiful day, celebrating the enormity of your contributions, and the outstanding achievements you have so generously shared with us all.
Thank you, dearest Dennis.
Congratulations, and greatest gratitude, for the incredible memories, community, and heart, and soul have you have given and imparted to us all.
You are truly, a gift.
Adora and John Staudenmeier
16 days ago
Dr Dennis Keene played at our wedding on April 28, 2018 at first Ascension church. The music was beautiful. We are very proud that we were lucky enough to have an award winning artist play our wedding. We have been lucky to enjoy Dr Dennis’s incredible music at church services and concerts for the past many years.
Thank you Dr Dennis, your music will be missed, we wish you a fun and happy retirement.
Adora and John Staudenmeier
Elizabeth Adams
14 days ago
If I were to commission an object portrait of Dr. Dennis Keene it would be of a bag of dark chocolate Milanos, a bottle of Fiji water, and a banana. Sometimes the Milanos are replaced by Veronas and sometimes there is no banana, but this deeply weird and delightful pre Sunday service meal is as expected as the beautiful music to follow. If you are arriving through the Parish Hall early as part of the acolyte or altar guild, you will find Dennis eating this fare among the choir members. In all likelihood, he will be telling some inappropriate joke.
These pre-service scenes are emblematic of how Dennis has given his whole self to the Ascension community. His talent would certainly be enough, but had the privilege to get all of it, all of the delightful details. I may miss those the most.
Ned Fitch
13 days ago
Dennis, singing with the Ascension Sunday choir with you has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. As a non-professional singer, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to make music at this level, alongside such extraordinary voices, and under your guidance. What first drew me to Ascension was the music, and the joy and honor of singing in the choir has made my experience all the more meaningful—something I will always cherish.
Beyond your extraordinary musical leadership, it’s your humor, quick wit, and genuine kindness that have made such a lasting impact on me and on all of us. You created not just a choir, but a community, and I am deeply grateful for your friendship. While we will certainly miss you on Sunday mornings at Ascension, I am hopeful we can now have Saturday nights to gather around a certain piano at a certain bar where we will belt out Sondheim tunes.
Matthew Vermedahl
13 days ago
I first met Dennis in the spring of 2004, when my boyfriend at the time, David Cholcher, invited me to visit The Church of the Ascension.
Having earned a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance with a minor in Piano, I was immediately struck by the extraordinary talent and musicianship I encountered on my very first Sunday at Ascension. The organ playing and choral sound transported me to another world — one I had been away from for quite some time, but suddenly found myself longing to return to again and again.
As my relationship with David grew, I found myself attending church more frequently and getting to know Dennis better as well. Eventually David joined the choir, and I must admit, my FOMO kicked in. The following choral season, David spoke to Dennis to see if I might also sing with the choir, and Dennis graciously allowed me to join one Sunday. Little did I know that after the service Dennis would summon me upstairs to his fourth-floor office for an audition.
I was completely unprepared and terrified. I suddenly found myself singing excerpts from Brahms’ How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place — in German, mind you! Fortunately, it had been the anthem that very morning, but to say I was a bundle of nerves would be an understatement. Somehow, I must have passed, because I’ve now been singing with the choir for twenty years.
As fulfilling as it has been to sing under Dennis’ direction, I have also been fortunate to experience his brilliance in a more intimate way: as his page turner. Those outside the music world may not realize what an important — and daunting — responsibility that is, but if you know, you know. Every musician has their own preferences and expectations when it comes to page turning. Turn too early, hesitate, project nervous energy, or lose your place, and you can derail a performance. I have often joked that I went gray turning pages for Dr. Dennis Keene of Ascension.
One memory in particular still lives vividly in my mind. It was a major feast day, and Dennis was playing Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor — one of the most iconic works in the organ repertoire. Naturally, Dennis was still using the same score he had owned since childhood, a fragile collection of pages that seemed ready to disintegrate if one merely breathed on them. Before the service he cautioned me, quite seriously, to be especially careful with the page turns.
As you can probably predict, in the middle of the fugue two pages stuck together as I turned them. One floated directly onto Dennis’ hands while the other drifted down toward the pedalboard. I died instantly. I vaguely recall Dennis uttering a small expletive as I scrambled to recover the pages — first from his hands and then, mortifyingly, from beneath the organ bench near his feet. Somehow I restored order, but by then I had completely lost my place in the music.
Meanwhile, Dennis never missed a beat. With his fingers flying across the manuals and his feet racing over the pedals, he calmly said, “Right page. Middle system. Third measure.”
Only a musician of Dennis’ extraordinary professionalism, focus, and artistry could navigate a moment like that without the slightest interruption to the music.
To watch Dennis at the organ has truly been a gift. To see how deeply he feels the music, and to witness the way he shares his spirituality through it — elevating the worship and experience of everyone present — has been one of the great joys of my own faith journey.
Thank you, Dr. Keene, for sharing your gifts with Ascension for the past 45 years. We have all been profoundly blessed by your artistry, your devotion, and your presence among us.
Best regards,
Page Turner
Richard Thomas Jordan
11 days ago
Only “The Maestro,” as I refer to Dr. Dennis Keene, could arrange to end this part of his musical legacy not only on Pentecost, but also on his birthday. I go back through many parishes, mostly Calvary/St. George’s and Calvin Hampton and Harry Huff. For many years, the only 6 PM service was at Ascension. I recall stuffing envelopes after those services for Voices of Ascension mailings. It was always an amazing experience at Ascension and with other greats in the music, with G Jan Jones and others.
Watching the Ascension Day service from Florida this evening, prayerful good and joyful wishes for your future work. Just having listened to the processional, no one could play Diademata as Dennis can. Always great memories of joyful music at Ascension, especially on this feast day. Well done, good and faithful servant, few are left who could match your style and musicianship. As a Registered Nominator of candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Prize is awarded for being a beacon of hope to humanity, I will be sending in YOUR nomination, Maestro and friend, for the Prize in mid-October 2026. You would deserve such recognition.
Dennis Keene is such a part of our collective hearts and lives. I share a picture from our marriage ten years ago. It speaks to qualities I so appreciate in Dennis. Music is central to our story. As he has for 45 years, Dennis insured that the music was both beautifully wrought and filled with meaning. Dennis is a good time. Planning was serious without feeling like anything but fun. Dennis cares deeply about Ascension. Looking closely at the photo, he included long-time choir folks that we hold dear, including Judy Cope, Denise Kelly, and G Jan Jones. Dennis is game to what the situation requires. He learned a new postlude and graciously included our Grace Church Choral Society friends. Most of all, Dennis has been a steadfast friend and colleague. Dennis, you are treasured and loved. Thank you for everything.
Dennis has always made me feel like my contribution to the choir is valuable. In an art form where blending in is the goal, having your individual artistry acknowledged and appreciated is so meaningful.
But I think perhaps Dr. Keene’s greatest contribution is the culture he creates: we’re there to make beautiful music and inspire worship, but he populates the choir with good, kind, decent people. I first sang at Ascension in 1999, and now — 27 years later — it is my spiritual and musical home. I am so, so grateful.
I met Dennis almost 40 years ago when I joined Ascension. He had only been in this job as organist and choirmaster for 8 years. Ascension still held “Services of Music”; Voices of Ascension wouldn’t come into being for another year. He has always been among the brightest lights at this parish for me.
As my friend, he has patiently answered my many nerdy music history questions over all these years. He has said things that made me laugh out loud more times than I can remember — and nearly none of which I can repeat in polite company, so don’t ask me to. When I was planning the music for Tom’s and my Evensong wedding, he gamely went along with my idiosyncratic choices (we processed in to “Earth and All Stars” and sang a Taizé setting of the Apostles’ Creed, for example) and he guided me to others. To this day, the organ prelude he suggested — Variations on “Veni, Creator” by Maurice Duruflé — remains one of my favorites; I’d asked him to pick something that would show off the recently dedicated Manton Memorial Organ to our wedding guests, and it certainly does!
Beyond our friendship and his musical abilities and discernment, however, I have been deeply appreciative of how his vocation has shaped my own experience of worship, of communion, of God incarnate in human-made things like bread and wine…and music. Once we were discussing an organist at another church who had forgotten which verse the congregation was on; he inadvertently started in on another verse after everyone had finished the hymn. Dennis was shocked that a church organist would have not been aware of the verses as he was playing them. And that, I think, is the secret to why Dennis’s participation in our services has always been such a boon to us in the pews.
I have seen “Dr. Keene” perform many times, and he is unequaled in this work. When he’s performing, however, he’s wearing white-tie, standing on a podium, and bringing out the best in a group of trained, professional singers. But when Dennis has been at the organ on Sundays or conducting an a capella choir — some of them talented professionals, the others talented volunteers — he has been worshiping right alongside us and helping to lead us to a deeper relationship with the One who blesses our own relationships and shows Himself to us in bread and wine…and music.
Thank you, Dennis. I will be eternally grateful.
Just to add: I will always love this picture of Dennis and my husband Tom taken on the day of our wedding. Not only because, as we’ve discovered in trying to celebrate him upon his retirement, there are very few photographs of Dennis! He’s been sneaky that way.
I have a treasured memory of Dr. Keene and how gracious and kind he is. My son was 4 years old and wanted to see the organ and Dr. Keene invited my son to sit next to him at the organ console and played something for him. I have the picture in my mind to this day and the glowing smile on my son’s face. After this Dennis said something like if my son should unfortunately want to take up a musical instrument, please make it something like a guitar. Today my son is a successful musician and guess what he plays? Yup, all kinds of guitars as well a little piano and drums.
Like Cordelia…. I cannot speak, m’lord!
Rev John Merz Rector Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Brooklyn NY
I served as Episcopal Chaplain to NYU and surrounding campuses from 2005 to 2010. Others will speak far better than I can about Dennis’s musical genius and his gift for nurturing the Voices of Ascension into a choir of national reputation. I want to speak about Dennis the person — someone I count as a friend.
My office was tucked against the back south wall of the parish building, stacked in what I always thought of as a Hollywood Squares arrangement. I was top left. Dennis was middle row, right at the top of the stairs. I stopped in at least twice a day. He’d explain some nuance of music in plain, accessible terms, but more often we’d dissolve into uncontrollable laughter over life’s oddities and ironies. Dennis has a raucous, wry, utterly sharp sense of humor.
Every day, climbing those stairs toward his office, I’d start smiling before I even arrived. If he was deep in work and only waved, I felt a little crestfallen — our exchange would have to wait. Even years later, after I’d taken a job in Brooklyn, passing that building on the way somewhere else would trigger the same feeling: heart lifting, already anticipating his explosive laugh and those almost-teary eyes of pure delight.
I should say something about what that friendship meant professionally. Campus ministry — working with young people — is often treated as second-tier work in the clergy world. It can be isolating. That Dennis embraced me, respected me, and folded me into the life of that building with such warmth and without hesitation mattered more than I can easily say. It gave me footing. It gave me a sense of belonging at a moment when I needed it.
Dennis is a teacher, a virtuoso, a devoted shepherd to decades of musicians. But to me he was a friend to a new priest — funny, warm, and generous in a way that always reminded me you have to laugh. No matter how hard things get, or how absurd, it all shifts once you find the delightful absurdity in our collective self-seriousness.
Dennis, you’ve earned every accolade as a musician. But your wild humor, your tear-eyed laughter, your support, your kindness — those are what I’ll carry longest.
With much love to you my friend,
John Merz
I met Dennis only 5 years ago, when I auditioned for Voices of Ascension and the Church of the Ascension choir, and in that short time, these choirs have become a highlight of my musical career. VoA was the first major chorus I was invited to sing in, and it has opened numerous other doors for me in the NYC choral scene. I’m grateful to Dennis for hearing my potential and hearing my value when I didn’t have a terribly impressive choral resume. Getting to work with Dennis, learn from his decades of experience studying great choral masterworks, and sharing in his joy and delight at music making has added vast swaths of color to my life, and that is utterly priceless! While I’ll miss working Dennis in the Church of the Ascension choir, I’m excited to continue working together in Voices of Ascension!
Dennis! You have made our family’s world a more joyful and musical place. Your passion and dedication to creating gold standard performances that challenge, comfort, inspire, enlighten, and entertain us simultaneously is a gift. Thank you. Wishing you all the best in your retirement.
love,
Isabel Spencer “Jr.”
Dennis Keene is an extraordinary human. I am so so very grateful to know this musical genius, and wonder, a consummate artist, musical polymath, and the most warm-hearted, kind, and compassionate soul, who has elevated the lives of so many, through extraordinary music-making, and community.
My life, ears, voice, and music-making has been shaped and changed by Dennis’ artistry, having sung with Ascension since the age of 26, and am grateful and musically indebted to Dennis, for such rich and inspiring performances, concerts, and services over the last 2 decades, and sharing his wealth of knowledge and talents with those who are lucky to know his brilliance.
Dennis’ ability to bring out the most plush, and beautiful sounds from Voices and Ascension choir with just a gesture, or a singular word — or a closing of his eyes and movement of hands speaks volumes to the enormity of musicality that lives within him. I know no other, who speaks the words “bon”, “swell”, and “dapper” — as Dennis is timeless, beyond boundaries, and eras, living in the place he loves to be — which is the highest, most elevated moments of great music-making and artistry.
From the vision of the Manton memorial organ being realized over many many moons and seasons, to his care and attention to every logistic, making all the pieces of the weekly services, and Voices seasons run with great aplomb and brilliant splendor — Dennis’ tireless efforts and work have been foundational in shaping the culture and presence of art, and elevation at Ascension — and his absence will be palpable — as he is truly an original, and no one is like him. This being what is so magical about working with him, and alongside his dedication, rigor, and artistry.
A shapeshifter, Dennis’ ability to be simultaneously an eagle of great prominence and sovereignty, and a 12 year old boy is astonishing. His playful nature, incredible sense of humor, dry wit, and compassionate heart are a delight to know, and be around — which juxtaposes the seriousness which he dedicates himself to his craft, at the highest level.
Many eras have passed at Ascension, and Dennis has been at the helm for 4 and a half of those decades, bringing prominence, accolade — as well as heart, compassion, and community with equal measure through the doors of Ascension.
I cannot thank Ascension and Dennis enough, for making me the composer, and performer/creator that I am, inspiring and nurturing me musically weekly, providing vertical space and stillness in a city that grounded me spiritually and musically, during my 20s and 30s and a seminal time in my development as a person, musician, and composer.
I am indebted to Dennis for supporting and helping realize my electroacoustic choral and vocal works. My opera and record ‘Sunken Cathedral’ couldn’t have been possible without Dennis and Ascension’s support, featuring Ascension’s acoustic, organ, architecture, chants and lessons learned weekly in sermons, and integrated into music, influenced and steeped in the legacy, mysticism, archetypal forces, discernment and navigation, during my time at Ascension with Dennis.
Thank you, Dennis, for being open minded enough to foster my creative out of the box aims, proposals, interdisciplinary and multimedia collaborations in the sacred Ascension space and being such a steadfast ally, confidante, supporter, friend, and mentor — on the road of being practicing creative artists.
You are a treasure, and true gem, of a human, dear Dennis. God bless you, and that enormous heart of yours. Thank you for all the truly transcendent, buoyant, beautiful, and majestic places you have transported us to, through your music and artistry. How you will be missed. Thank you for sharing your extraordinary life force with us.
Hats off, my dear mentor, and teacher.
May today be a beautiful day, celebrating the enormity of your contributions, and the outstanding achievements you have so generously shared with us all.
Thank you, dearest Dennis.
Congratulations, and greatest gratitude, for the incredible memories, community, and heart, and soul have you have given and imparted to us all.
You are truly, a gift.
Dr Dennis Keene played at our wedding on April 28, 2018 at first Ascension church. The music was beautiful. We are very proud that we were lucky enough to have an award winning artist play our wedding. We have been lucky to enjoy Dr Dennis’s incredible music at church services and concerts for the past many years.
Thank you Dr Dennis, your music will be missed, we wish you a fun and happy retirement.
Adora and John Staudenmeier
If I were to commission an object portrait of Dr. Dennis Keene it would be of a bag of dark chocolate Milanos, a bottle of Fiji water, and a banana. Sometimes the Milanos are replaced by Veronas and sometimes there is no banana, but this deeply weird and delightful pre Sunday service meal is as expected as the beautiful music to follow. If you are arriving through the Parish Hall early as part of the acolyte or altar guild, you will find Dennis eating this fare among the choir members. In all likelihood, he will be telling some inappropriate joke.
These pre-service scenes are emblematic of how Dennis has given his whole self to the Ascension community. His talent would certainly be enough, but had the privilege to get all of it, all of the delightful details. I may miss those the most.
Dennis, singing with the Ascension Sunday choir with you has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. As a non-professional singer, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to make music at this level, alongside such extraordinary voices, and under your guidance. What first drew me to Ascension was the music, and the joy and honor of singing in the choir has made my experience all the more meaningful—something I will always cherish.
Beyond your extraordinary musical leadership, it’s your humor, quick wit, and genuine kindness that have made such a lasting impact on me and on all of us. You created not just a choir, but a community, and I am deeply grateful for your friendship. While we will certainly miss you on Sunday mornings at Ascension, I am hopeful we can now have Saturday nights to gather around a certain piano at a certain bar where we will belt out Sondheim tunes.
I first met Dennis in the spring of 2004, when my boyfriend at the time, David Cholcher, invited me to visit The Church of the Ascension.
Having earned a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance with a minor in Piano, I was immediately struck by the extraordinary talent and musicianship I encountered on my very first Sunday at Ascension. The organ playing and choral sound transported me to another world — one I had been away from for quite some time, but suddenly found myself longing to return to again and again.
As my relationship with David grew, I found myself attending church more frequently and getting to know Dennis better as well. Eventually David joined the choir, and I must admit, my FOMO kicked in. The following choral season, David spoke to Dennis to see if I might also sing with the choir, and Dennis graciously allowed me to join one Sunday. Little did I know that after the service Dennis would summon me upstairs to his fourth-floor office for an audition.
I was completely unprepared and terrified. I suddenly found myself singing excerpts from Brahms’ How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place — in German, mind you! Fortunately, it had been the anthem that very morning, but to say I was a bundle of nerves would be an understatement. Somehow, I must have passed, because I’ve now been singing with the choir for twenty years.
As fulfilling as it has been to sing under Dennis’ direction, I have also been fortunate to experience his brilliance in a more intimate way: as his page turner. Those outside the music world may not realize what an important — and daunting — responsibility that is, but if you know, you know. Every musician has their own preferences and expectations when it comes to page turning. Turn too early, hesitate, project nervous energy, or lose your place, and you can derail a performance. I have often joked that I went gray turning pages for Dr. Dennis Keene of Ascension.
One memory in particular still lives vividly in my mind. It was a major feast day, and Dennis was playing Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor — one of the most iconic works in the organ repertoire. Naturally, Dennis was still using the same score he had owned since childhood, a fragile collection of pages that seemed ready to disintegrate if one merely breathed on them. Before the service he cautioned me, quite seriously, to be especially careful with the page turns.
As you can probably predict, in the middle of the fugue two pages stuck together as I turned them. One floated directly onto Dennis’ hands while the other drifted down toward the pedalboard. I died instantly. I vaguely recall Dennis uttering a small expletive as I scrambled to recover the pages — first from his hands and then, mortifyingly, from beneath the organ bench near his feet. Somehow I restored order, but by then I had completely lost my place in the music.
Meanwhile, Dennis never missed a beat. With his fingers flying across the manuals and his feet racing over the pedals, he calmly said, “Right page. Middle system. Third measure.”
Only a musician of Dennis’ extraordinary professionalism, focus, and artistry could navigate a moment like that without the slightest interruption to the music.
To watch Dennis at the organ has truly been a gift. To see how deeply he feels the music, and to witness the way he shares his spirituality through it — elevating the worship and experience of everyone present — has been one of the great joys of my own faith journey.
Thank you, Dr. Keene, for sharing your gifts with Ascension for the past 45 years. We have all been profoundly blessed by your artistry, your devotion, and your presence among us.
Best regards,
Page Turner
Only “The Maestro,” as I refer to Dr. Dennis Keene, could arrange to end this part of his musical legacy not only on Pentecost, but also on his birthday. I go back through many parishes, mostly Calvary/St. George’s and Calvin Hampton and Harry Huff. For many years, the only 6 PM service was at Ascension. I recall stuffing envelopes after those services for Voices of Ascension mailings. It was always an amazing experience at Ascension and with other greats in the music, with G Jan Jones and others.
Watching the Ascension Day service from Florida this evening, prayerful good and joyful wishes for your future work. Just having listened to the processional, no one could play Diademata as Dennis can. Always great memories of joyful music at Ascension, especially on this feast day. Well done, good and faithful servant, few are left who could match your style and musicianship. As a Registered Nominator of candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Prize is awarded for being a beacon of hope to humanity, I will be sending in YOUR nomination, Maestro and friend, for the Prize in mid-October 2026. You would deserve such recognition.