Choral Arts New England held its annual Awards Ceremony on Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 4 p.m. in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Due to public health-related space restrictions, attendance at the event is by invitation only. However, the ceremony will be available for streaming live and available for later viewing on YouTube (linked on the Choral Arts YouTube channel).

This year's ceremony will honor John Finney, recipient of the Alfred Nash Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award for exceptional contributions to the choral arts. Active in Boston-area choral music for nearly 40 years, John Finney has achieved universal admiration through his long and successful tenure as Conductor of the Heritage Chorale; Director of Music at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church; Associate Conductor and Chorus Master of the Handel and Haydn Society; and, at Boston College, Director of the University Chorale and Conductor of the B.C. Symphony Orchestra. An internationally known organist and expert on early music, he is principal keyboardist, as well as Conductor and Choral Director, at Blue Hill Bach in Maine.

The Awards Ceremony will recognize this year's recipients of Alfred Nash Patterson grants, as well as recipients of Alfred Nash Patterson grants in 2020 (when the ceremony was canceled due to COVID-19), and the recipients of Choral Arts New England's Emergency grants in December 2020. Within the past 18 months, Choral Arts New England has given 43 grants, totalling $36,500, to support the choral community.

This year's ceremony will also include the presentation of a new award, the Phoenix Award, to choral groups that have shown special resilience and ingenuity in continuing to engage their members and the public during the devastating pandemic.