Ignea Strata translates to 'fiery layers' and layering is the core essence of Ignea Strata's work. Layers of time are evoked in varied programs of works representing over one thousand years of western music. Bringing that history to life are four voices, layered, intersecting and mingling with one another through layers of musical counterpoint, homophony, and exquisitely blended unison.

Founded in 2016 in Kansas City, Ignea Strata is comprised of singers Lucy Conklin, Joanna Ehlers, Kirsten Hyde, and artistic director Leslee Wood. Since then, the ensemble has presented concerts of consummate musicality that intimately engage the music's historical, political, and aesthetic roots. Ignea Strata's concerts are known for their imaginative narrative quality, superb scholarship, and creative approach to music from the earliest notated chants to challenging contemporary repertoire.

With musical backgrounds ranging from folk music, opera, choral music, and musical theater, the four singers of Ignea Strata contribute their individual, distinct voices with equal grace to complex medieval polyphony, expansive renaissance counterpoint, and the close, crystalline harmonies of contemporary repertoire. Under the direction of composer and musicologist Leslee Wood, the ensemble performs newly edited and previously unpublished medieval and renaissance music and frequently works directly with contemporary composers, premiering new works commissioned specifically for Ignea Strata.