East Studio Building, JS333
Education
- D.M.A., Doctor of Musical Arts, Yale School of Music, 2012
- M.M., Master of Music, Yale School of Music, 2008
- B.M., Bachelor of Music, Ithaca College, 2006
Biography
Dominick DiOrio is professor of music in choral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he joined the faculty in 2012.
DiOrio is an imaginative, enthusiastic, and energetic conductor and composer who has won widespread acclaim for his contributions to American music. Whether leading an ensemble or crafting a new score, he brings equal passion and determination to his work in vocal and instrumental music, and he has been recognized with The American Prize in both Choral Composition (2014) and Choral Performance (2019, with NOTUS).
In July 2020, he became the fourteenth artistic director and conductor of the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, one of the most historic choral organizations in the U.S., now celebrating its one hundred fiftieth season. As part of those duties, he prepared the chorus to sing “The Glorious Sound of Christmas” concerts with The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductors Bramwell Tovey in 2021 and William Eddins in 2022 and 2023.
DiOrio believes that singing together brings people joy. He has conducted ensembles around the world, from the Houston Chamber Choir and Choral Arts Initiative in the U.S. to Allmänna Sången and Ars Veritas abroad. A strong advocate for new music, he has premiered over 50 original works, and he has collaborated with many of today’s leading composers, including Paquito D’Rivera, Melissa Dunphy, Marques L.A. Garrett, Texu Kim, Han Lash, Caroline Shaw, and Christopher Theofanidis. Committed to diversity and inclusion in artistic programming, DiOrio proudly programs works that reflect the gender, ethnic, and racial diversity of our world, and he works to amplify the voices of composers from underrepresented populations.
His love for contemporary repertoire spans the gamut of pathbreaking works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words, Steve Reich’s The Desert Music, Alfred Schnittke’s Requiem, David Lang’s the little match girl passion, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, Sofia Gubaidulina’s Sonnengesang, Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, and Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion, which he prepared for the composer in November 2017.
Equally at home with music of earlier eras, he has also conducted choral-orchestral performances of Bach’s Magnificat, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, W. A. Mozart’s Great C Minor Mass, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, among others.
As a composer, DiOrio has been hailed for a keenly intelligent, evocative style, which shows “a tour de force of inventive thinking and unique colour” (Gramophone). His music has been praised for its “depth of vision, mastery of compositional technique, and unique style” (The American Prize). His over 50 published works have appeared at major venues around the world including the Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall—as well as in Austria, Canada, China, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, and the U.K.
He composes for musicians of all ages and experiences, and his recent commissioning partners include the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, the Children’s Chorus of Washington, the Worcester Youth Orchestras, the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble & Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, The Choral Arts Society of Washington, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, and many institutions of higher education, including Macalester, Oberlin, Princeton, Smith, and the Universities of Michigan, Oregon, and Illinois.
DiOrio believes in the power of education to change lives and impact our communities. Since 2012, he has been a member of the choral conducting faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he serves as professor of music and leads the new music vocal ensemble NOTUS. He has elevated NOTUS to acclaim through commissions, recording projects, and invited performances at regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). NOTUS was also one of only 24 choirs in the world selected by competitive audition to perform at the 12th World Symposium on Choral Music in Auckland, New Zealand, before it was cancelled due to the pandemic.
NOTUS’s critically acclaimed debut album, Of Radiance & Refraction, featured the world-premiere recordings of five commissioned works. Released in December 2022 with Navona Records, NOTUS’s second album, What Is Ours: Music for an America in Progress, features English horn artist Roger Roe and eclectic new music composed by Reena Esmail, Moira Smiley, Carlos Cordero, Joel Thompson, Andrea Ramsey, John William Griffith II, Leigha Amick, and DiOrio.
DiOrio is deeply committed to strengthening the profession by empowering others, and he recently completed a four-year term as president and president-elect of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (2018-22). He has also previously served as treasurer of NCCO (2014-17), chair of ACDA’s Composition Initiatives Standing Committee (2016-20), and a member of the board of directors for Chorus America (2015-18).
He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting degree from the Yale School of Music, as well as an M.M.A. and an M.M. in Conducting from Yale and a B.M. in Composition summa cum laude from Ithaca College. He proudly credits his mentors Janet Galván, Simon Carrington, and Marguerite Brooks for serving as model leaders and for making him the person he is today.