latest news
Beloved actor William Shatner, an Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner best known for his role as Captain Kirk in “Star Trek,” will deliver a spoken-word performance on April 8th at Indiana University's Memorial Stadium before the total eclipse of the sun. Shatner’s spoken-word performance will be a collaboration with students and faculty from the IU Jacobs School of Music. It will include new original music written for the occasion by Dominick DiOrio, performed by student musicians from NOTUS, the Jacobs School’s internationally renowned contemporary vocal ensemble. Read the press release here.
NOTUS has been selected to be one of the performing ensembles for the National Collegiate Choral Organization's 10th Biennial Conference at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia: "Coming Home." DiOrio and NOTUS will present a program of music titled "America in Progress," which includes selections from NOTUS' recent album What Is Ours. Featured composers include Reena Esmail, Moira Smiley, IU alumni Kahan Taraporevala and Alex Berko, and DiOrio's own A Chain is Broken. Read more about NCCO10.
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music new music chamber chorus NOTUS recently released its second album, “What Is Ours: Music for an America in Progress,” on Navona Records. The recording is available on numerous digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Learn more.
An emotional and collaborative tour de force, Dominick DiOrio’s FETTER & AIR presents the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia’s own words set to a haunting soundscape that explores each member’s innermost hopes, fears, dreams, and desires. The massive undertaking is a skillful combination of 562 audio files comprising spoken word and singing by 61 chorus members, combined into a single piece by DiOrio and sound designer Justin “JG” Geller. The personal thoughts and interweaving arrangements create a raw expressiveness and intimacy, ultimately rendering a reminder of how our own stories echo within us.
Release date: January 28, 2022. Learn more and listen here.
Released today, August 6, 2020: the world premiere recording and virtual release of Wire You Here by singer, composer, song-collector, and IU alumnus Moira Smiley. Recorded individually during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the work focuses on the spoken words of thirteen Indiana University students as they create art and share their anxieties and hopes in a time of disconnection and upheaval. Featuring NOTUS and produced by Moira Smiley, IU Jacobs School faculty members Dominick DiOrio and D. James Tagg, and video designer Samantha Dowd. Watch the video.
On April 1, 2020, Mendelssohn Club Chorus of Philadelphia (MCC) -- one of the most historic choral organizations in the country, now in its 146th season -- announced my appointment at their 14th Artistic Director & Conductor, effective July 1. Read the full press release or visit their website to learn more. In the press release, I describe the new partnership as based on mutual values which are “grounded in an artistic vision that is aspirational, adventurous, and collaborative. ... Together, we will start a new chapter in our collective journey, one in which the music we sing is sung not only because of its greatness or beauty, but also because of its potential to touch our listeners’ hearts, to comment on our collective stories, and to reach out to those in isolation, welcoming them into a greater song of hope, a wider circle of belonging.”
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band (Col. Jason Fettig, director) has released their latest album, "Anthems," which features the world premiere recording of Silent Moves the Symphony True, commissioned and premiered jointly by the USMB and the Choral Arts Society of Washington (Scott Tucker, artistic director). Listen to the recording or read the liner notes for this freely distributed educational recording.
"A chorus as one voice, woven together with artistry and constant care." - David Katz, chief judge
NOTUS has been named the winner of The American Prize in Choral Performance in the college/university division for 2018-2019. Consisting of 30 students from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and conducted by Dominick DiOrio, NOTUS shares this year's distinction of co-winner with the Westminster Kantorei and conductor Amanda Quist. The American Prize is a national non-profit competition in the performing arts that is designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performers, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings. View the press release.
Halina Goldberg and I sit down to talk about Krzysztof Penderecki's visit to Indiana University and the circumstances behind his honorary doctorate and invitation to conduct his monumental St. Luke Passion with the IU ensembles. The Through the Gates podcast episode 69 is hosted by Janae Cummings. Listen here.
The University of Illinois Sesquicentennial celebrations include a major new commission: Gathering for chorus, wind symphony, soprano and baritone. The work will be premiered in Chicago, New York City, and Urbana in the Spring of 2018 with the UI Chamber Singers, UI Wind Symphony, vocal artists Nathan Gunn, R. Todd Payne, and Yvonne Gonzales Redman, and conductors Stephen Peterson and Andrew Megill. Read more about the work here.
