Alyssa Cossey

Alyssa Cossey is an American choral conductor, scholar and educator who has spent about two decades leading choirs in academic, community and professional settings. She currently serves as artistic director and conductor of the Carolina Master Chorale in South Carolina and has held choral posts at institutions including the University of Arizona and Wellesley College. She conducts Handel's Messiah with Long Bay Symphony this December, work that draws on her specialty in choral-orchestral repertoire.

Cossey works primarily as a choral conductor, which means Long Bay Symphony's Messiah performances will likely lean on her ear for text, diction and the interplay between chorus and orchestra rather than pure orchestral technique. Handel's Messiah alternates grand choral movements, the Hallelujah chorus most famous among them, with intimate solo arias, and a conductor from the choral world tends to shape those big choruses with close attention to the words being sung, where a phrase breathes, where a consonant should land together across dozens of voices. Expect tempos that let the chorus articulate clearly and a performance built around the oratorio's dramatic arc from prophecy through resurrection.

Cossey has spent roughly twenty years conducting choirs in academic, community and professional settings, with past posts including the University of Arizona, where she placed third for the Dale Warland American Prize in Conducting. She is currently the interim director of choral activities at Wellesley College for the 2025-26 academic year and artistic director and conductor of the Carolina Master Chorale in South Carolina. Her work has focused in part on expanding the range of composers and conductors represented in the choral field.