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DOMINICK DI ORIO & KIMBERLY DUNN ADAMS, E.U.A.

A colorful melting pot: New choral music by young American composers​  

American conductors Kimberly Dunn Adams (Western Michigan University, USA) and Dominick DiOrio (Indiana University, USA) present a session on American choral music of the 20th and 21st century featuring a curated collection of works in diverse styles by living composers.  Notable composers featured in the session will include Ysaye Barnwell, Abbie Betinis, Chen Yi, David Conte, Shawn Crouch, Dominick DiOrio, Stacey Gibbs, Cristian Grases, Sydney Guillaume, Jocelyn Hagen, Jake Runestad, and Zachary Wadsworth. Attendees will receive complimentary scores as part of the interactive session, which will include a combination of lecture, listening, and singing.

 

Kimberly Dunn Adams is the Director of Choral Activities at Western Michigan University, where she directs the University Chorale, Collegiate Singers, and Grand Chorus. She also directs the graduate program in choral conducting and teaches choral literature, choral conducting, and advanced conducting. Under her direction, the University Chorale received 2nd place in the 2013 American Prize and was invited to perform at two conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and the Michigan Music Conference. In 2014, she premiered Paul Lansky’s cantata, Contemplating Weather, and recorded the piece for Bridge Records. In 2015, Adams was named a Conducting Fellow in the International Conductors Exchange Program. Adams was previously the Director of Choral Ensembles at Mount Holyoke College. Adams holds a BA in religion from Oberlin College, a BM degree in vocal performance from Oberlin Conservatory, and the MM degree in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music. Adams earned the DMA in choral conducting with a minor in music theory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An active member of ACDA, Adams has served on the boards in Massachusetts and Michigan. Adams is highly praised for her energetic, positive, and insightful work as a guest conductor and is a sought-after clinician and adjudicator.

The music of young American composer Dominick DiOrio has been called “a tour de force of inventive thinking and unique colour” (Gramophone) and “[full of] sunny rays of heavenly light” (Opera News). DiOrio’s music is widely performed, published, and recorded, having been presented across the United States as well as in Austria, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Sweden, and the UK. His works are published with Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer, G. Schirmer, Oxford, and others. Hired at age 28 and promoted to associate professor at 31, DiOrio is the youngest-ever tenured member of the conducting faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is the director of NOTUS, an elite chamber chorus that specializes in performing and commissioning new music of living composers. NOTUS has performed at both regional and national ACDA conferences and as an invited ensemble on the DCINY Artist Series at Carnegie Hall. DiOrio earned the DMA, MMA, and MM degrees in conducting from the Yale School of Music, and the BM in composition from Ithaca College. He currently serves as Treasurer for the National Collegiate Choral Organization, as a member of the Board of Directors for Chorus America, and on the ACDA Composition Initiatives Standing Committee.

Bio en CAT

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