Dominick DiOrio

O Virtus Sapientiae

• Instrumentation: SATB (divisi) and three sopranos, a cappella
• Completed: January 2013
• Duration: 5 minutes
• Texts: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
• Video:
  • O Virtus Sapientiae

    NOTUS: IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble; Dominick DiOrio, conductor
    Martha Eason, Elise Marie Kennedy, and Sandra Period, sopranos

• Audio:
  • O Virtus Sapientiae
    
    Yale Schola Cantorum
    

    Arianne Abela, Kathryn Aaron, & 
    Lucy Fitzgibbon, sopranos 
    Simon Carrington, conductor
    (purchase the score)

    Recorded by STUDIOTEO / Mateusz Zechowski, recording engineer

• Score Preview:
• Press:
  • REVIEW: DCINY presents "a cappella NEXT" - Jeffrey Williams, New York Concert Review
  • REVIEW: Weill Concert of New Choral Works Proves Promising - James Knox Sutterfield, Sequenza21
  • REVIEW: NOTUS ready for New York audience - Peter Jacobi, The Herald Times
  • Americana '18 at St John's Smith Square "Thanksgiving" ORA Singers/Suzi Digby - David Truslove, Classical Source
  • Keeping your ears open... - Rory Johnston, Composer Create
• Published:

  G. Schirmer, Craig Hella Johnson Choral Series (click to purchase)

• Prize:

  Finalist for the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Choral Composition Competition - 2010

• Program Note:

  O Virtus Sapientiae is a bold reimagining of Hildegard's chant, both tune and text. "Actively quoting" the source material, my setting takes Hildegard's music as a launching point from which to imagine new sonic possibilities. Echo effects and metrical relationships are achieved with the use of three soprano soloists, positioned at North, South and West corners of the room, while the larger chorus inhabits the East. The music is meant to be experienced in the round, as the voices surround the audience and attempt to create an enactment of Hildegard's visions.   

• Performances:
  • February 27, 2014 (Workshop)
    ACDA Interest Session - Cincinnati Central Division Convention
    NOTUS: IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble
    Dominick DiOrio, conductor
    Sandra Periord, Martha Eason, & Elise Marie Kennedy, sopranos
    Cincinnati, OH
  • March 11, 2014 (Preview)
    "Hot Off the Press"
    NOTUS: IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble
    Dominick DiOrio, conductor
    Sandra Periord, Martha Eason, & Elise Marie Kennedy, sopranos
    Jacobs School of Music - Auer Hall - Bloomington, IN
  • March 21, 2014 (Premiere; revised version)
    "a cappella NEXT!" presented by DCINY
    NOTUS: IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble
    Dominick DiOrio, conductor
    Sandra Periord, Martha Eason, & Elise Marie Kennedy, sopranos
    Carnegie Hall - Weill Recital Hall - New York, NY
  • June 4, 2016
    "Nine Greek Muses"
    Six Degree Singers
    Rachel Carlson, conductor
    Rockville United Church - Rockville, MD
  • June 5, 2016
    "Nine Greek Muses"
    Six Degree Singers
    Rachel Carlson, conductor
    Hughes United Methodist Church - Silver Spring, MD 
  • November 13, 2016
    Piedmont College Singers
    Wallace C. Hinson, conductor
    The Cathedral of St. Philip - Atlanta, GA
  • November 22, 2018
    Ora Singers
    Suzi Digby, conductor
    St. John's Smith Square - London, UK