It Takes Your Breath Away
Solo Instrument, Sound Art
work detail
instrumentation: English horn and fixed electronic media
completion date: november 2021
duration: 9 minutes
texts: Original Text “It Takes Your Breath Away” written and read by Margie McCreless Roe with additional readings by members of the Roe family.
events
KURT VONNEGUT @ 100: "THE VONNEGUT REQUIEM"
NOTUS, Dominick DiOrio
IU Jacobs School of Music - Auer Hall - Bloomington, Indiana
4:00 pm
Originally commissioned by Susan Swaney and Voces Novae, The Vonnegut Requiem is an incredible collaboration between eight living composers (Cary Boyce, Stacy Garrop, Dale Trumbore, Gabriel Lubell, Malcolm Dalglish, Lauren Bernofsky, Don Freund and Moira Smiley) and created in the most Vonnegut-ty way in the spirit of his granfalloons. Come and hear the texts that KV wrote when he first experienced the Latin Requiem, and hear tradition kaleidoscopically distilled. Also featuring the annual student winners of the NOTUS Student Composition Contest.
ART FOR ART'S SAKE (PRESENTED BY INDIANAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA)
Musicians of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Broadway United Methodist Church - Indianapolis, IN
4:00 pm
Five musicians from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will hold two concerts to support art therapy for families of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. The initiative, “Art for Art’s Sake,” benefits MYO students and their families by connecting them with a valuable therapeutic resource that improves and enriches lives.
The concerts are free to the public with the request for a donation. The concerts will take place at the following times. No reservations necessary.
The ISO musicians include Roger Roe, English horn (The Ann Hampton Hunt Chair); ISO Concertmaster Kevin Lin, violin; Austin Huntington, principal cello; Ivy Ringel, bassoon; and Kent Cook, piano.
All proceeds from the concerts will contribute towards art therapy provided by the Art of the Soul.Therapists work with MYO families using evidence-based methods to address issues including anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, life coaching, behavior issues, life transitions and effects of trauma.
Music to include:
Elegy for Innocence (2008) by Jeff Scott (b. 1965) Ivy Ringel, bassoon; Kent Cook, piano
It Takes Your Breath Away (2021) by Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984) English Horn and fixed electronic media: poem by Margie McCreless Roe Roger Roe, English Horn
Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Kevin Lin, violin; Austin Huntington, cello, Kent Cook, piano
ART FOR ART'S SAKE (PRESENTED BY INDIANAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA)
Musicians of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Northminster Presbyterian Church - Indianapolis, IN
4:00 pm
Five musicians from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will hold two concerts to support art therapy for families of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. The initiative, “Art for Art’s Sake,” benefits MYO students and their families by connecting them with a valuable therapeutic resource that improves and enriches lives.
The concerts are free to the public with the request for a donation. The concerts will take place at the following times. No reservations necessary.
The ISO musicians include Roger Roe, English horn (The Ann Hampton Hunt Chair); ISO Concertmaster Kevin Lin, violin; Austin Huntington, principal cello; Ivy Ringel, bassoon; and Kent Cook, piano.
All proceeds from the concerts will contribute towards art therapy provided by the Art of the Soul.Therapists work with MYO families using evidence-based methods to address issues including anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, life coaching, behavior issues, life transitions and effects of trauma.
Music to include:
Elegy for Innocence (2008) by Jeff Scott (b. 1965) Ivy Ringel, bassoon; Kent Cook, piano
It Takes Your Breath Away (2021) by Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984) English Horn and fixed electronic media: poem by Margie McCreless Roe Roger Roe, English Horn
Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Kevin Lin, violin; Austin Huntington, cello, Kent Cook, piano
videos
It Takes Your Breath Away
Roger Roe, English horn Original music by Dominick DiOrio Original poetry by Margie McCreless Roe
Live video of the world premiere performance, April 3, 2022, Auer Hall, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
performances
NOTUS Concert * Roger Roe, English horn * Auer Concert Hall - Indiana University Jacobs School of Music * Bloomington, IN
press
recordings
NOTUS * Dominick DiOrio, director
Roger Roe * English horn
There are generally two ways one can face a crisis. One can give up, or one can persevere and use it to one’s advantage. Choir director Dominick DiOrio definitely chose the latter during the pandemic, turning his reflections and sentiments about it into a profoundly engaging, almost philosophical choral album titled WHAT IS OURS. DiOrio conjures a formidable cross-section of music by a range of contemporary composers that not only reflects the diversity and multiplicity of modern-day America, but also its underbelly of struggle, challenge, and an eventual triumph of humanity.
program note
It Takes Your Breath Away is a dual celebration: expressing the creativity of Roger Roe, Margie McCreless Roe, and their family, while also expressing the relief that has come from an easing of our pandemic situation.
It is also a new creative venture for me, starting first from the recording of Margie’s own reading of her poem, moving to recorded improvisations at the piano, then to recorded improvisations by Roger on the English Horn, interweaving recorded excerpts of the poem by Roger and his family, and then finally creating a composed English Horn part to perform live above the recorded electronics part, edited and mixed with varying levels of reverberation and distortion. The recorded part is also placed into a time: June 2021, when the cicadas were singing their own song of relief after a long hibernation.
I dedicated this piece lovingly to my dear friend Roger and to his most remarkable family.
- Dominick DiOrio, November 2021
text
It Takes Your Breath Away by Margie McCreless Roe
It is not one of those sacred encounters where you open your lungs and hold the air until you can hold it no longer –
the Grand Canyon, a full moon, a granddaughter's dance, distant thunder, Brahms' Requiem, Chartres.
It is a virus. It can take away your breath, your breathing, until, attached to an exotic bouquet, you receive the wind of a blessed breathing machine.
It is causing all of us to hold our breath in masks of white or grey or black or sometimes brilliant colors.
It is sucking the breath from our days.
But I know an old story where even the dust received breath and took on life under the trees of a garden.
Reprinted with permission.
information
events
KURT VONNEGUT @ 100: "THE VONNEGUT REQUIEM"
NOTUS, Dominick DiOrio
IU Jacobs School of Music - Auer Hall - Bloomington, Indiana
4:00 pm
Originally commissioned by Susan Swaney and Voces Novae, The Vonnegut Requiem is an incredible collaboration between eight living composers (Cary Boyce, Stacy Garrop, Dale Trumbore, Gabriel Lubell, Malcolm Dalglish, Lauren Bernofsky, Don Freund and Moira Smiley) and created in the most Vonnegut-ty way in the spirit of his granfalloons. Come and hear the texts that KV wrote when he first experienced the Latin Requiem, and hear tradition kaleidoscopically distilled. Also featuring the annual student winners of the NOTUS Student Composition Contest.
ART FOR ART'S SAKE (PRESENTED BY INDIANAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA)
Musicians of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Broadway United Methodist Church - Indianapolis, IN
4:00 pm
Five musicians from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will hold two concerts to support art therapy for families of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. The initiative, “Art for Art’s Sake,” benefits MYO students and their families by connecting them with a valuable therapeutic resource that improves and enriches lives.
The concerts are free to the public with the request for a donation. The concerts will take place at the following times. No reservations necessary.
The ISO musicians include Roger Roe, English horn (The Ann Hampton Hunt Chair); ISO Concertmaster Kevin Lin, violin; Austin Huntington, principal cello; Ivy Ringel, bassoon; and Kent Cook, piano.
All proceeds from the concerts will contribute towards art therapy provided by the Art of the Soul.Therapists work with MYO families using evidence-based methods to address issues including anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, life coaching, behavior issues, life transitions and effects of trauma.
Music to include:
Elegy for Innocence (2008) by Jeff Scott (b. 1965) Ivy Ringel, bassoon; Kent Cook, piano
It Takes Your Breath Away (2021) by Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984) English Horn and fixed electronic media: poem by Margie McCreless Roe Roger Roe, English Horn
Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Kevin Lin, violin; Austin Huntington, cello, Kent Cook, piano
ART FOR ART'S SAKE (PRESENTED BY INDIANAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA)
Musicians of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Northminster Presbyterian Church - Indianapolis, IN
4:00 pm
Five musicians from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will hold two concerts to support art therapy for families of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. The initiative, “Art for Art’s Sake,” benefits MYO students and their families by connecting them with a valuable therapeutic resource that improves and enriches lives.
The concerts are free to the public with the request for a donation. The concerts will take place at the following times. No reservations necessary.
The ISO musicians include Roger Roe, English horn (The Ann Hampton Hunt Chair); ISO Concertmaster Kevin Lin, violin; Austin Huntington, principal cello; Ivy Ringel, bassoon; and Kent Cook, piano.
All proceeds from the concerts will contribute towards art therapy provided by the Art of the Soul.Therapists work with MYO families using evidence-based methods to address issues including anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, life coaching, behavior issues, life transitions and effects of trauma.
Music to include:
Elegy for Innocence (2008) by Jeff Scott (b. 1965) Ivy Ringel, bassoon; Kent Cook, piano
It Takes Your Breath Away (2021) by Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984) English Horn and fixed electronic media: poem by Margie McCreless Roe Roger Roe, English Horn
Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Kevin Lin, violin; Austin Huntington, cello, Kent Cook, piano
videos
It Takes Your Breath Away
Roger Roe, English horn Original music by Dominick DiOrio Original poetry by Margie McCreless Roe
Live video of the world premiere performance, April 3, 2022, Auer Hall, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
performances
NOTUS Concert * Roger Roe, English horn * Auer Concert Hall - Indiana University Jacobs School of Music * Bloomington, IN
press
- 2023-01-12: Student vocal ensemble, NOTUS, recently released second album ‘What is Ours: Music for an America in Progress’
- 2023-04-07: REVIEW: What Is Ours (Navona: NV6484)
- 2023-05-20: REVIEW: NOTUS "What Is Ours: Music for an America in Progress"
recordings
NOTUS * Dominick DiOrio, director
Roger Roe * English horn
There are generally two ways one can face a crisis. One can give up, or one can persevere and use it to one’s advantage. Choir director Dominick DiOrio definitely chose the latter during the pandemic, turning his reflections and sentiments about it into a profoundly engaging, almost philosophical choral album titled WHAT IS OURS. DiOrio conjures a formidable cross-section of music by a range of contemporary composers that not only reflects the diversity and multiplicity of modern-day America, but also its underbelly of struggle, challenge, and an eventual triumph of humanity.
program note
It Takes Your Breath Away is a dual celebration: expressing the creativity of Roger Roe, Margie McCreless Roe, and their family, while also expressing the relief that has come from an easing of our pandemic situation.
It is also a new creative venture for me, starting first from the recording of Margie’s own reading of her poem, moving to recorded improvisations at the piano, then to recorded improvisations by Roger on the English Horn, interweaving recorded excerpts of the poem by Roger and his family, and then finally creating a composed English Horn part to perform live above the recorded electronics part, edited and mixed with varying levels of reverberation and distortion. The recorded part is also placed into a time: June 2021, when the cicadas were singing their own song of relief after a long hibernation.
I dedicated this piece lovingly to my dear friend Roger and to his most remarkable family.
- Dominick DiOrio, November 2021
text
It Takes Your Breath Away by Margie McCreless Roe
It is not one of those sacred encounters where you open your lungs and hold the air until you can hold it no longer –
the Grand Canyon, a full moon, a granddaughter's dance, distant thunder, Brahms' Requiem, Chartres.
It is a virus. It can take away your breath, your breathing, until, attached to an exotic bouquet, you receive the wind of a blessed breathing machine.
It is causing all of us to hold our breath in masks of white or grey or black or sometimes brilliant colors.
It is sucking the breath from our days.
But I know an old story where even the dust received breath and took on life under the trees of a garden.
Reprinted with permission.
