By Jay Sorgi • Posted February 6, 2026

Three different choirs spanning the millennia of Judeo-Christian tradition will combine their vocal forces Sunday afternoon, Feb. 8 at 2:30 p.m. when the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Center City Philadelphia hosts an Interfaith Choir Concert.

The concert is free and open to the public, and will be streamed live via this link.

Nashirah — the Jewish Chorale of Philadelphia – along with the Archdiocesan Choir of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Catholic Gospel Mass Choir will fill the historic house of worship with sounds of praise.

“We have more similarities than we do differences,” said Tonya Taylor-Dorsey, director of the Philadelphia Catholic Gospel Mass Choir. “We all worship God at the end of the day, whether it’s the Jewish faith, Catholic faith; whether you’re Black, White, Hispanic, it doesn’t really matter. It’s all about honoring God in our worship.”

Taylor-Dorsey says her counterpart with Nashirah, Dr. Julia Zavadsky, reached out to her and suggested the concert with her gospel choir, similar to the experience of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Prayer Service at St. Malachy Catholic Church in North Philadelphia last month.

“She wanted to do a concert with the gospel choir because she works with different groups around (Philadelphia). Every year at their concert they include another group, and so they wanted to include us this year,” Taylor-Dorsey said.

“I told her, ‘If you want to represent the Catholic Church of Philadelphia, it’s more than just the gospel choir. We’re just not one entity within ourselves. You have Charlene Angelini, who leads the archdiocesan choir, so if you want a true representation of who we are musically as Catholics, you have to include all of us. So that’s how we ended up. We talked with Charlene, and she said yes.”

Taylor-Dorsey also gives credit to Charlene’s neighbor within the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center on 17th Street, Office for Black Catholics Director Stacy Williams.

“Stacy was so instrumental in making this happen,” Taylor-Dorsey said.

“We need a sound system because the cathedral is a huge space, and Stacy pretty much said, ‘Whatever you guys need, let me know.’ She’s been a godsend wherever this project is unfolding. She has truly made sure that it happened.”

“The fact that they’re joining together says a lot about who we are as Catholics,” Williams said. “We should embrace as many of our brothers and sisters as possible, and I count our Jewish brothers and sisters.”

Part of that embrace involves recognizing distinct faith traditions and shared roots in Scripture. Each choir will be presenting a different musical setting of the same theological truth presented in the Psalms.

“There’s one part in the concert where we’re all doing songs (of) the same title, Psalm 23,” Taylor-Dorsey said. “Julia will be doing it in a Hebrew faith; Charlene will be doing it in a European traditional setting, and then I’ll be doing it in a gospel setting, how we do it in the Black church. Same verse, same Scripture, same words, but different styles.”

Each choir will present individual selections, but the choirs also plan on intermixing and sharing in particular songs. For that reason, the three choir directors are educating their counterparts.

“To make sure that our choirs are prepared, we learn each other’s music,” Taylor-Dorsey says. “I will teach them my music, Charlene will teach her music, Julia will teach her music. So we’ll do some things together, we’ll do some things separately, and it’s going to be a fun time praising God.”

Part of the attraction of Sunday’s concert for Taylor-Dorsey involves the immense size and acoustic potential of the cathedral basilica, its intricate artwork, its rich history and the fact that St. Katharine Drexel rests there in a crypt.

“When you have a backdrop like the cathedral, that in and of itself speaks volumes (about) the beauty of it all,” she said. “I’m just thinking about all of the wonderful people that have been in there and sang praise, and so here we are doing the same thing.”

Taylor-Dorsey believes that this kind of event bringing together three musical traditions – different, but related — comes at an important time in today’s society.

“I believe that music is truly the tool that can bring (together) all cultures, all races. Whether you’re rich or poor, Black or White, music is really that tool that can bring everyone together, and historically it’s always been that way,” she said.

“From back in the 1960s and now fast forward to 2026, there’s a whole lot of unrest in the world and a lot of negative things that are happening and people being profiled and microaggressions. All of these things are going on, but here you have music where people are coming together (from) different faiths and we’re worshiping. So music is a very, very important and useful tool.”

As she succinctly puts it, “I thank God for the music.”