The Dessoff Choirs

New York's Dessoff Choirs comprise several smaller groups -- the Dessoff Symphonic Choir and the Dessoff Chamber Choir -- that perform separately and together. The groups collectively share an orientation toward new and unusual music. The choirs trace their origin to 1924 when choral conductor Margarete Dessoff founded the Adesdi Chorus and the A Cappella Singers in New York. She brought those two groups together in 1930 under the Dessoff Choirs rubric. An important figure in the choirs' early years was their second conductor, Paul Boepple. As of the early 2020s, Malcolm J. Merriweather was the group's music director. In 2023, the Dessoff Choirs issued an album of Margaret Bonds' works, containing the Credo and Simon Bore the Cross.