By Emily Chaffins -
KEY BISCAYNE | When Anna Keller Sarmiento was a teen attending music-based Eucharistic Adoration in Argentina, she established a love for prayer that would propel her to the event nicknamed the “Catholic Grammys” almost 20 years later.
Photographer: Courtesy
Agnes Choir participates in the Medjugorje International Youth Festival (Mladifest) August 2019.
A 34-year-old interior designer with a baby on the way, Keller Sarmiento is founder and director of Agnes Choir, who lead weekly Eucharistic Adoration Mondays at 8:30 p.m. at St. Agnes Catholic Parish. Established in 2017 at the parish in Key Biscayne, Agnes Choir was honored in the 2025 Catholic Music Awards in Rome.
“In Argentina, musical Adorations became very popular when I was a teenager,” she said. “It came to a point where I was probably going to four Adorations weekly, sometimes just with my mom who also sings with me, sometimes with a smaller choir… It was not only a place where I really could feel connected to God and my thoughts, prayers, and wishes, but also it was a place of peace.”
“I’m very musically inclined, so listening to songs of hope, peace, faith, and God’s Word definitely for me was like the cheapest therapy!” she joked.
Relocating to Miami in 2015, she unexpectedly found herself forming a choir whose main “mission” was glorifying Jesus in the Eucharist.
From humble beginnings to international phenomenon
When a young Argentinian approached her with an idea for a new choir in the summer of 2017, Keller Sarmiento was intrigued.
“She came up to me and said… can we please do [Argentinian-style, musical] Adoration here?” Keller Sarmiento said. “She, too, had seen Adorations in Argentina.”
Photographer: Courtesy
Anna Keller Sarmiento, founder and director of Agnes Choir from St. Agnes Parish in Key Biscayne, at the Catholic Music Awards in Rome, Italy July 27, 2025. For their original song “Ven a mi,” Agnes Choir was honored with “Best Parish Choir” in the Spanish-language category.
The initial choir was made up of six young women, two of them backing up the choir with guitars. In October 2017, they held Adoration in front of a small group of mostly family and friends. Adoration continued monthly until February 2018, when they started a weekly schedule.
“Little did I know that the gentleman upstairs had crazy plans!” as Keller Sarmiento put it.
Today, the Eucharistic Adoration sessions draw over 300 people per week, with priests consistently hearing about 40 confessions during each one-hour event. Attendees have journeyed from as far as South America to be present for Adoration.
“People come from Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and they say, I plan my holiday so I can be here one Monday,” said Keller Sarmiento. “The stories and testimonies we’ve heard are beyond anything I could have imagined.”
The choir has an “acoustic” sound, according to Keller Sarmiento. Besides incorporating guitar and bass, other musicians play more distinctive instruments, including the cajón, a boxy Peruvian percussion instrument that’s “more acoustic and organic, more than adding a huge drum set.”
Agnes Choir has hosted guest musicians from as nearby as Doral and as far away as Colombia, including Cateura, a Paraguayan orchestra creating music with “recyclable instruments.” For example, “they had violins [made of] boxes of tomatoes or materials like that,” recalled Keller Sarmiento.
Agnes Choir has even given Catholic musicians the momentum to strike off on their own. “Some of our previous members of Agnes have left Miami and have started their own Agnes Choirs… in other locations: Boston, Massachusetts and Córdoba, Argentina.”
Spreading music across the globe
Agnes Choir’s first of three albums came about to uplift a parishioner during a difficult time. The parishioner was undergoing chemotherapy in 2019 and requested a high-quality recording of Agnes Choir so he could play it during his chemo sessions.
“Another member of the community very generously donated for us to record an album with an incredible producer from Colombia, José Gaviria,” explained Keller Sarmiento. “It was such a rushed album because the intention for this album was not only for [the sick parishioner] to be able to listen… but also because the sponsor had an audience with Pope Francis and wanted to gift the album to him.”
Photographer: Courtesy
Agnes Choir records their “Sígueme” album, which was dropped April 20, 2025, marking Easter Sunday.
In a matter of a few weeks, the group scrambled to record the album. Gaviria, the producer, also challenged them to compose an original piece.
“That’s how ‘Eres’ came to us,” recalled Keller Sarmiento.
After the choir’s first original song – the album’s titular piece – dropped, “Eres” went international: a leader from the Medjugorje International Youth Festival (“Mladifest”) was so taken by the song that she reached out that May 2019.
“We were invited to not only give our testimony… but also we were invited to sing,” said Keller Sarmineto. The choir participated in the festival in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina that summer, creating an English version, “You Are,” for the occasion.
“They’ve actually translated the song into Portuguese and Croatian,” she said. “They’re still singing it in the Medjugorje choir.”
Agnes Choir has since recorded two other original albums, “Juntos Adorar” (2021) and “Sígueme” (2025). They provide their original songs’ sheet music for free on their website.
“We now get videos from people in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, or Spain singing some of our songs because they have the lyrics and chords,” said Keller Sarmiento. “There’s nothing that makes me happier than to see that what we’re doing is not for ourselves or for fame and glory. It’s literally for others to use and share.”
Making history at the 2025 Catholic Music Awards
In the spring of 2025, along with international musicians sending English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese Catholic music, Agnes Choir sent the inaugural Catholic Music Awards originals from their “Juntos Adorar” album for judges’ consideration.
Photographer: Courtesy
For their original song “Ven a mi,” Agnes Choir was honored with “Best Parish Choir” in the Spanish-language category of the inaugural Catholic Music Awards, which occurred in Rome, Italy July 27, 2025.
“We heard that we were nominated, and it was surreal because I just didn’t expect it,” said Keller Sarmiento.
Their song “Ven a Mi” made them a contender for “Best Parish Choir,” Spanish-language section.
“‘Ven a Mi’ was, coincidentally, one of the songs, if not the only song of the album, that we composed with eight members of our choir, which was probably the largest group” from Agnes Choir to contribute to writing the same song, said Keller Sarmiento.
“The whole song is about feeling sometimes a little in the dark and alone, and how God is always there, asking you to come towards Him — that He’s within us and the people that you share with.”
Keller Sarmiento was present for the July 26 press conference and July 27 awards ceremony. In addition to the award announcement, favorite moments included hanging out with members of Levi – a well-known group from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish who were up for the same award – and witnessing celebrity Catholic singer Matt Maher sing.
“At the end of day, music brings people together… We’ve had people come to our Monday Adorations who are Buddhist, who don’t believe in anything, or who are from other denominations within Christianity,” Keller Sarmiento said. “In a way, this has brought them back home… to the Catholic Church.”
She added, “It’s so beautiful to see that the Church is trying to bring recognition to people who, with whatever talent or gifts that God has given them, are trying to bring more people together… [and] hopefully bring them home.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
To read more about the Catholic Media Awards and its ties to the Archdiocese of Miami, check out Florida Catholic reporter Cristina Cabrera Jarro’s coverage of the event and its other South Florida stars by clicking here.
