World Premiere Recording of Melissa Dunphy's "On the Horizon"
ON THE HORIZON from the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia (Artistic Director Dominick DiOrio) and the Commonwealth Youth Choir is an urgent clarion call against the threat of climate change. This new cantata by composer Melissa Dunphy is scored for adult and children’s choruses, brass quintet, percussion, and piano. The nine-movement work is inspired by young singers’ reflections on climate change and their generation’s uncertain future. The resulting libretto — by turns candid, hopeful, and urgent — appeals for cooperation and responsibility. Recorded live with The Timberdale Brass and pianist Ting Ting Wong, ON THE HORIZON is a call to action from voices of the next century.
upcoming events
saturday, february 14 2026
Fire In My Heart: Songs of Love
Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus - Rebecca Petra Naomi Seeman, director
Dr. Rebecca Petra Naomi Seeman and the Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus give a performance of my work, Day of Fire and Sun as part of their February concert program. More information and tickets.
sunday, february 15 2026
Fire In My Heart: Songs of Love
Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus - Rebecca Petra Naomi Seeman, director
Dr. Rebecca Petra Naomi Seeman and the Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus give a performance of my work, Day of Fire and Sun as part of their February concert program. More information and tickets.
saturday, february 28 2026
Convergence: Fluidity & Timelessness
Choral Arts Ensemble
Choral Arts Ensemble performs my work The Red-Gold Darkness of Rain for SATB choir and piano as part of their Spring concert. More information and tickets here.
about dominick
Recognized with The American Prizes in both Choral Composition (2014) and Choral Performance (2019, with NOTUS), Dominick DiOrio is an energetic conductor and composer who has won widespread acclaim for his contributions to American music. He is professor of music and chair of the department in choral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he joined the faculty in 2012, and where he serves as director of NOTUS.
DiOrio also serves as the fourteenth artistic director and conductor of the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, where he regularly prepares the chorus to sing with The Philadelphia Orchestra, including a "near ideal" (The Philadelphia Inquirer) performance of Carmina burana in March 2024 with conductor Fabio Luisi. DiOrio’s combined role as a composer-conductor has led to many unique opportunities and collaborations with some of the most important artists and icons of our time, including novelist Richard Powers, the Right Reverend Bishop Gene Robinson, and actor William Shatner.
DiOrio’s original music has been hailed for its keenly intelligent, evocative style, which shows “a tour de force of inventive thinking and unique colour” (Gramophone). His over 70 published works have appeared at major venues around the world including the Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall, as well as internationally.
He composes for musicians of all ages and experiences and has completed over 70 commissions in the last decade. Some recent commissioning partners include the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and the San Francisco Symphony, the Children’s Chorus of Washington, the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble & Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, The Choral Arts Society of Washington, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, and many academic institutions.
DiOrio is deeply committed to strengthening the profession by empowering others, and he recently completed a four-year term as president and president-elect of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (2018-22), for which he was honored with NCCO's inaugural Distinguished Service Award. DiOrio has also served as chair of ACDA’s Composition Initiatives Standing Committee and as a member of the Board of Directors for Chorus America. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music, as well as the M.M.A. and M.M. in Conducting from Yale and the B.M. in Composition summa cum laude from Ithaca College.
selected works
press
There are precious few vocal ensembles in any country that could achieve what DiOrio and NOTUS have in this work—and the others—in this recital.
David DeBoor Canfield
The Philadelphia Orchestra isn’t the only local ensemble to be performing at the top of its game. Dominick DiOrio led the Mendelssohn Chorus in its annual “Feast of Carols” concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill, on Dec. 13. Both performances were sold out at 500 tickets apiece, and both audiences heard selections of holiday music that was beautifully chosen and even more beautifully presented.
Michael Caruso
recent news
The 152 year old Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia will join an all-star lineup at the free "Victory at Sea" concert, part of a historic celebration marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Thirty members from this renowned chorus will perform three patriotic selections alongside the U.S. Navy Band and U.S. Navy Sea Chanters. Additionally, the chorus will accompany headliner Patti LaBelle in her own arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. In a distinguished honor, Mendelssohn Chorus Artistic Director & Conductor Dominick DiOrio will be the only civilian conductor featured in this concert, leading the chorus and The Navy Band in Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus.” The concert, headlined by Philadelphia soul legend Patti LaBelle, will be broadcast nationwide on C-SPAN in the days following the event.
Under the direction of Dominick DiOrio, NOTUS has emerged as one of America’s most luminous contemporary vocal collectives — a vibrant laboratory of living, breathing music. NOTUS' third commercial release, WEAVING ETERNITY gathers works by five composers whose styles range from radiant abstraction to folkloric murmur, unified by a shared sense of harmonic color. Featuring music by Gabriel Jenks, Don Freund, Dale Trumbore, Zanaida Stewart Robles, and Dominick DiOrio, with featured saxophone artist Otis Murphy. Explore the album here.
A consortium of churches, community choruses, and cultural institutions has come together to honor The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson through world premiere performances of my newly commissioned musical composition born from Gene's words: Our Wildest Imagining. Lead Commissioner institutions include Washington National Cathedral, The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D.C., and more. Premiere performances begin June 1 and continue through 2026.
My original work A Home Is Found at Christmas will see its Philadelphia premiere performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia on December 14th and 15th, 2024 as part of "The Glorious Sound of Christmas," a series of concerts made famous by Eugene Ormandy's recording of many years ago. William Eddins conducts the performances, with the Mendelssohn Chorus prepared by yours truly.
