Hearing in Color Announces Chroma!
Hearing in Color Announces the Launch of Chroma, Chicago’s New Resident Vocal Ensemble Dedicated to Voices of the Global Majority
Chicago, IL — [September 23, 2025] — Hearing in Color proudly announces the launch of Chroma, a new chamber ensemble committed to amplifying the voices of the global majority through choral music. Chroma will make its debut performance on November 15, 2025, marking a bold step in Chicago’s cultural landscape and advancing Hearing in Color’s mission to center historically excluded composers and stories.
Chroma unites an extraordinary collective of 18 artists who will perform both treasured repertoire and newly commissioned works. Chroma is a redefinition of choral arts in Chicago: rooted in identity, powered by authenticity, and uncompromising in excellence. At its core, the group is both a collective and a community—a platform for artistic belonging, experimentation, and celebration—building a new future for choral music in the city and beyond through innovative storytelling and the power of the human voice.
The ensemble is made up primarily of artists of color—an identity-centered makeup that is unique to Chroma, yet long overdue in a city as diverse as Chicago. “Chroma asks its artists to embrace individuality as the very source of musical richness,” says Madeleine Woodworth, the ensemble’s inaugural conductor and music director. “We envisioned Chroma as a space where the voices of marginalized identities are not just represented but find belonging,” said LaRob K. Rafael, Founder and Artistic Director of Hearing in Color, who will co-lead the group with Woodworth. “This ensemble will be a home for music that reflects the diversity and resilience of our communities.”
Chroma also expands the canon by commissioning new works from composers of the global majority, whose music reflects lived experiences and cultural lineages.
Chroma’s debut program, The Welcome Table, will feature music by Reena Esmail, Tania León, and Damien Geter, alongside four world premieres by composers Steve Wallace, Yiran Zhao, Jalen Scott, and Michael R Oldham, commissioned specifically for the ensemble’s unveiling. Together, the program highlights a vibrant spectrum of sounds and lived experiences, inviting audiences to gather around music as a shared space of welcome and reflection.
The concert will take place in partnership with the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, Chicago’s longest-running Latine cultural hub, which connects communities through Afro-Latin art and culture. This collaboration deepens Chroma’s commitment to building bridges between communities and celebrating diasporic voices. Tickets for The Welcome Table go on sale October 13, 2025. Don’t miss this premiere celebration of Chicago’s newest choral voice.
About Madeleine Woodworth, Music Director
With degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Yale School of Music in organ performance and choral conducting respectively, Madeleine Woodworth serves as Director of Music at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park where she directs the Adult, Madrigal and Schola choirs. She also conducts the Women’s Schola at Holy Name Cathedral, and accompanies and teaches at the Merit School of Music. She’s had the opportunity to participate in masterclasses and workshops led by notable conductors including Marguerite Brooks, Simon Carrington, Joe Miller, Jerry Blackstone, Masaaki Suzuki, David Hill, Ann Howard Jones, William Weinert, Eugene Rogers, and Josep Vila.
In addition to teaching private lessons and accompanying local musicians, she was a conducting clinician at the inaugural Emerging Conductors workshop in Wheaton, and she sings professionally with La Caccina, William Ferris Chorale, Stare at the Sun, and for recording demos with GIA Publications. As an organ performer, she was recently featured as a recitalist in the American Guild of Organists Great Lakes Regional Convention in summer of 2023 and as an Evensong service organist in the Association of Anglican Musicians conference in Minneapolis in summer of 2024.
She won the Robert Shaw prize for distinguished achievement in choral conducting at the end of her time at Yale, and in 2022, became Oak Park’s inaugural Handel Week Young Conductor awardee. As a fierce advocate for celebrating underrepresented voices and living composers, she’s thrilled to be making her debut conducting Hearing in Color’s inaugural choral ensemble, Chroma.
About LaRob K. Rafael
LaRob K. Rafael is the Founder and Artistic Director of Hearing in Color, a Chicago-based nonprofit that amplifies historically misrepresented voices through bold programming, commissioning, and community-centered performances. He leads the organization in reshaping how audiences engage with music by centering authenticity, cultural memory, and equity.
A sought-after speaker, curator, and lecturer, LaRob collaborates with institutions including the Evanston Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Music Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. He brings deep knowledge and accessible storytelling to lectures on race, culture, and history in classical music, helping audiences and organizations reimagine the canon.
LaRob serves as Artistic Director of the 2025 Ear Taxi Festival, curating one of Illinois’ largest commissioning initiatives. A Sphinx LEAD fellow and 2025 MPower Artist Grant recipient, he was weekend morning host at WFMT (98.7 FM) and co-host of Sounds Classical, where he expanded how classical music is experienced, using radio to connect new audiences with diverse and timeless stories.
About Hearing in Color
Founded by LaRob K. Rafael, Hearing in Color is a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to amplifying historically excluded stories in classical music. Through concerts, residencies, educational programs, and partnerships, Hearing in Color is reshaping the musical canon to reflect music grounded in truth.
About Chroma:
Chroma is the professional resident ensemble of Hearing in Color, a community-responsive laboratory for bold new choral performance. Led by Music Director Madeleine Woodworth and Artistic Director LaRob K. Rafael, Chroma unites extraordinary artists to premiere new works and collaborate with composers whose stories reflect the communities they serve.
Rooted in identity and powered by authenticity, Chroma redefines what choral music can be. It is both a home for historically marginalized voices and a platform for experimentation, dialogue, and celebration—building a new future for choral music in Chicago and beyond.
Join us for the debut of Chroma: The Welcome Table on Saturday, November 15, 2025, at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center. For roster and more information, visit hearingincolor.org or chromachicago.org. Tickets on sale, October 13th, 2025