When Alexander Blake’s Los Angeles-based choral ensemble, Tonality, makes its San Diego debut on Saturday, it won’t be the first time they’ve been heard here.
The group’s performance on day one of the two-day Sankofa Choral Festival at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego (FUMCSD) follows Tonality’s performance in the Gap’s well-known holiday ad campaign, which launched its 2026 edition on Tuesday.
Tonality, conducted by its founder Blake, can also be heard singing in the movie “Whalefall,” which has been showing on local screens since mid-October.
Alexander Blake is the artistic director of Tonality, an L.A. chorus performing this weekend at the Sankofa Choral Festival in Mission Valley (Antonio Meda)
Tonality can also be heard — and seen — online, which is how Brian Lustig, FUMCSD’s choral director, found the ensemble. When he was looking for a dynamic set of voices for his inaugural two-day Sankofa Choral festival, he knew exactly who to contact.
“I immediately thought of Blake and his professional choir,” Lustig said, speaking from his office at the Mission Valley church. “One of Tonality’s purposes is to speak social justice truths, which aligns with our mission here. They sound amazing. It will be a treat to hear such high-caliber singers.”
Tonality, which is featured on two recent Grammy-winning albums, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Blake was studying choral music at the University of Southern California when he gathered a few singers together in 2016.
He had attended a performance of Craig Hella Johnson’s “Considering Matthew Shepard,” a choral response to the brutal 1998 murder of a young gay man in Wyoming.
“That was the first time I had seen music focused on a story around injustice and hatred,” Blake said. “I started to put together these concerts. There was no real plan after that. It’s an amazing feat to get to a decade.
“The mission of Tonality is to use music to speak to experiences, to bring light to difficult conversations and emotions, so that we can connect better and heal as a community,” Blake said.
Saturday’s concert will begin with songs from “America Will Be,” a choral piece curated by Blake during the 2020 pandemic. The singers of Tonality will perform such songs as Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” and Blake’s “1232 Lyfe,” which is about the three-strikes law.
The second half will showcase “Running From, Running To: A Musical Reflection on Ahmaud Arbery.” It is featured on Tonality’s “Songs of Remembering” album, which was released last year.
In February 2020, Ahmaud Arbery — an unarmed 25-year-old black man — was shot multiple times in Georgia while he was jogging. Three white men were found guilty of murder and hate crimes.
“The nature of the Ahmaud’s murder had so many important aspects to me,” said Blake, who composed “Running From, Running To” with single-named singer-songwriter Ogi.
“He was running, doing something so humane and health-conscious and forward-thinking, and these men were so threatened by his very existence,” Blake continued. “In less violent and less extreme ways, I have felt that fear.”
As either a conductor, singer or vocal contractor, Blake has worked on many film and TV projects. They include “Whalefall,” “The Odyssey,” National Geographic’s “America The Beautiful” series and the Gap holiday campaign commercials.
Saturday’s concert at FUMCSD will feature soloists throughout the concert, including in six of the eight movements of “Running From, Running To.”
“It’s funny to think that my first big composition was so heavy,” Blake said. “I was in touch with Ahmaud’s family, so — aside from dealing with imposter syndrome — it carried the weight of feeling this family is about to encounter this music about someone they knew and loved.”
The festival continues with a second concert on Sunday that will featurethe choirs of FUMCSD, performing a concert curated by Lustig.
All the composers at Sunday’s concert are Black but come from different eras and backgrounds. They include Rosephanye Powell, who received the prestigious 2025 Raymond Brock Memorial Commission, and R. Nathaniel Dett, a lauded mid-century composer.
“This music is so worthy of performance,” Lustig said. “Our standard canon usually features European music and doesn’t represent a lot of works by women or Black composers. We’ll do a few familiar tunes like ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.’ But most of the concert will be pieces that people have not encountered.”
To Blake, who will conduct Saturday and Sunday’s concerts, the Sankofa Choral Festival is the right place for sonic exploration of important issues.
“As choral artists, we have a particular impact in the way we create music together with people with different voices,” he said. “We show the strength and the beauty that comes when we all work together for a common purpose.”
Sankofa Choral Festival featuring Tonality
When: 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Where: First United Methodist Church of San Diego (FUMCSD), 2111 Camino del Rio South, Mission Valley
Tickets: $30-$45 per concert; $40-$60 for both; $5 for students
Phone: 619-297-4366
Online: fumcsd.org