With the start of the new year, a seasoned Philadelphia musician is taking on a new challenge as director of the Philadelphia Catholic Gospel Mass Choir.

Tonya Taylor-Dorsey was appointed to the post by the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s Office for Black Catholics, effective Jan. 1.

Established for the 2014 World Meeting of Families, the ensemble features voices from the archdiocese and neighbouring dioceses. The choir has participated in parish revivals, the U.S. bishops’ listening sessions on racism and the annual “Soulful Christmas Concert” at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Centre for the Performing Arts.

In addition, the choir regularly performs at archdiocesan observances such as the St Martin de Porres Mass and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr Day prayer service. For Taylor-Dorsey, who has more than three decades of experience in parish music, the role once seemed unlikely for someone who was raised Presbyterian — and who “didn’t sing in the church choir growing up.”

“I wanted to be a concert pianist,” she said, citing “Fanfarinette” from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Suite in A Minor” as her favourite piece to play.

Taylor-Dorsey’s musical ambitions led her to study at Michigan State University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. Diploma in hand, she returned to her native Philadelphia, and shortly thereafter landed a job as music director at St Peter Claver in Centre City until the parish was closed.

In 1993, she started a 13-year appointment as choir director at Our Lady of Hope parish in Philadelphia, during which time she staged annual concerts and produced a recording of the Hope Singers.

When she became the choir director at St Martin de Porres Parish in 2006, Taylor-Dorsey decided to make her lifelong commit-ment to Catholicism official, joining the church under the guidance of then-pastor Father Edward Hallinan.

“During our first meeting, he asked me, ‘Why aren’t you Catholic?’” she recalled in an interview with CatholicPhilly.com, the archdiocese’s online news outlet. “Actually, I felt like I was Catholic even before I converted.” In college, she had studied the Mass, finding beauty in the order of the liturgy. As her career developed in Catholic parishes, she realized that she felt increasingly at home.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’m playing at this church for two Masses each Sunday, but I wouldn’t be buried from here if I died,’” she said. “I want to encourage people to sing and raise their voices in honour of God.”