Dominick DiOrio

An Irish Blessing

• Instrumentation: SATB chorus and piano
• Completed: June 2014
• Duration: 4 1/2 minutes
• Texts: Traditional
• Audio:
  • An Irish Blessing
    
    
• Score Preview:
• Published:

  Carl Fischer (purchase the score)

• Commission:

  Commissioned by the Texas Choral Directors Association
  for the TCDA Middle School / Junior HS Honor Choir 2015 - Dr. Andrea Ramsey, conductor

• Program Note:

  An Irish Blessing is a setting of the poignant text "May the road rise up to meet you." This text has been a favorite of mine for a long time, and this setting brings out the hopeful and aspirational qualities of the poetry with energetic rhythms in the piano and legato sweep in the voices. Appropriate for all ages of mixed choruses from middle school and high school, to collegiate, civic, church and professional.

  This work is dedicated fondly to conductor Dr. Andrea Ramsey and the members of the Texas Choral Directors Association 2015 Middle School / Junior HS Honor Choir, for whom the setting was commissioned. I must also express gratitude to Jennifer Galligher, without whom this collaboration would not have been possible. After leaving a faculty teaching position in Houston in 2012 to accept a job at Indiana University, I am positively delighted to return now under such wonderful circumstances.

• Performances:
  • July 25, 2015 (premiere)
    Texas Choral Directors Association 2015 Convention
    Middle School / Junior HS Honor Choir
    Dr. Andrea Ramsey, clinician
    Dominick DiOrio, guest conductor
    San Antonio Convention Center (Ballroom A) - San Antonio, TX
  • January 16, 2016
    Wisconsin Choral Directors Association Convention
    WCDA Middle Level Honor Choir
    Brett Robison, conductor
    Lawrence University - Appleton, WI
  • May 1, 2016
    University of Maryland Chamber Singers
    Dominick DiOrio, guest conductor
    ​UMD School of Music - College Park, MD
  • October 26, 2016
    Bob Jones University Collegiate Choir
    Fred R. Coleman, conductor; Ruth N. Coleman, piano
    War Memorial Chapel - Bob Jones University - Greenville, SC
  • November 19, 2016
    Tennessee All Northwest Jr. High Honor Choir
    Bradley Almquist, conductor
    West Jackson Baptist Church - Jackson, TN
  • April 26, 2017
    Northern Illinois University All-University Chorus
    R. Brett Goad, conductor
    Boutell Memorial Concert Hall - Northern Illinois University - Dekalb, IL
  • October 26, 2017
    University of Indianapolis Schola
    Paul Krasnovsky, conductor
    University of Indianapolis - Indianapolis, IN
  • March 14, 2018​
    Sycamore High School Chamber Choir
    Deanna Tausch, conductor
    Sycamore High School - Sycamore, IL