My name is Dominick DiOrio, and I am a composer and conductor who also serves as Professor of Music and Chair of the Choral Conducting Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where I have taught since 2012.
At IU, I direct NOTUS, a contemporary vocal ensemble dedicated to the commission, performance, and recording of works by living composers. Made up of skilled undergraduate and graduate students studying music, NOTUS is a unique ensemble that has a 45-year history of performing some of the most inventive music written in the 20th and 21st centuries—and it’s the only university choral ensemble with a specific mission to do so.
During my time as director of NOTUS, we’ve programmed a number of works from See-A-Dot Music Publishing, including Fahad Siadat’s Hymn to Aethon, The Bird-headed, The Many-Taloned and Saunder Choi’s Ang Tren. Both of these works make inventive use of the mixed chorus, using extended techniques and fast tempi to create exciting and propulsive works that drive a program forward.
If I were to program them on a concert together, I might also include Jaco Wong’s On(a)matopoeia, a work that I have not yet had the chance to perform, but one that I am excited to work on in the future. It’s whimsy and wit would be a great contrast of mood – positive, uplifting – to the two distinct feels of Fahad and Saunder’s text.
For moment of repose in the program, I might consider adding in another work I’ve performed before, Karen Siegel’sSaguaro, which depicts the haunting majesty of the mighty cacti from the Southwest US, here commenting on encroaching urbanization.
As all of these works are challenging in their own right, I would leaven the program with Joseph N. Rubinstein’s Break, featuring nautical imagery and lush a cappella sonorities. It would be an easier read for a skilled high school or university chorus, allowing time in the rehearsal process to devote to the more challenging aspects of the other works.
Taken together, these five pieces would create a 25 to 30-minute a cappella set about the landscapes and soundscapes we inhabit, abour our environment and technology, and about the myths we tell ourselves. The program would feature five of today’s most interesting living composers, each writing works appropriate for a virtuosic choir performing at its best.
All of the works are available on the See-A-Dot Music Publishing website and include recordings and sample scores.
Sometimes it’s worth checking out some music off-the-beaten path, and any one of these works would add a new level of interest to your coming programs and provide pieces that will help your chorus to attain new levels of excellence and interpretation.
- Dominick DiOrio, 14 June 2025
