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Composer and conductor Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984) was recently named "Best Composer 2011" by HoustonPress for Klytemnestra, his new opera with Divergence Vocal Theater. The work has been called "dark, engrossing" (Edward Albee), "deeply psychological" (Sequenza21), and "spiky... an amalgam of contemporary opera sounds" (HoustonPress). In conjunction with the opera's premiere in April 2011, Dominick was featured on Houston Public Radio's noon-time arts program, The Front Row. He has been the recipient of many composition awards including the 2009 Young New Yorkers’ Chorus Nathan Davis Prize, the 2007 Allen E. Ostrander International Trombone Composition Prize, the 2006 Cantate Chamber Singers Young Composers’ Competition, and the 2006 Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Prize given annually to one young composer by the American Choral Directors Association. He has received recent commissions for new music from the University of Houston Honors College, Divergence Vocal Theater, Commonwealth Youth Choirs, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and the Cornell Chorale. Upcoming performances are planned for 2011-2012 with Houston Chamber Choir, Divergence Vocal Theater, and Juventas New Music Ensemble. His work is published with Alliance, Lorenz/Roger Dean, and Oxford.

Dominick is Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music at Lone Star College-Montgomery, where he directs the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers and teaches courses in ear-training and music fundamentals. He will receive the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music in May 2012. In October 2009, he traveled to Sweden to compete in the Eric Ericson Award, the top international competition for young choral conductors. A serious advocate of new music, he has conducted premieres of Zachary Wadsworth, Tawnie Olson, Santana Haight, Dewey Fleszar, Kevin O’Neill, and his own compositions, as well as acclaimed performances of contemporary works by Stravinsky, Penderecki, Rautavaara, Pärt, and James MacMillan. A tenor, Dominick sings professionally with the Houston Chamber Choir and regularly serves as guest conductor for the ensemble in both rehearsal and performance.

At Yale, Dominick was Director of the University Church Choir, Principal Assistant Conductor and Ensemble Manager of the Yale Camerata, and Co-Director of the Yale Divinity School Chapel Choir. He has served on Faculty at the Berkshire Choral Festival Montreal; as a Fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival; as a Fellow at the Conductors Institute at Bard College, and as Conductor at the First Transient Glory Choral Symposium. He has participated in conducting master classes with Grant Gershon, Paul Hillier, Stephen Layton, Nicholas McGegan, Francisco Núñez, Helmuth Rilling, Kathy Saltzman Romey, and Robert Sund, among others. Recent awards include the Aidan J. Kavanagh Achievement Prize from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, given to a student in recognition of distinguished intellectual achievement in 2009, and a Graduate Fellowship from the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi in 2006-2007. His doctoral research focuses on embedded tonality in the music of Krzysztof Penderecki, and he presented this research at the 2010 ACDA Regional Convention in Denver. In June 2011, he traveled to San Francisco to take part in two masterclasses as part of the Chorus America 34th Annual Conference: an a capella Masterclass with Ragnar Bohlin and the International Orange Chorale and a Choral-Orchestral Masterclass with the American Bach Soloists and Jeffrey Thomas.

Dominick received the Master of Musical Arts (MMA) and Master of Music (MM) in Choral Conducting from Yale University where he studied with Marguerite L. Brooks, Simon Carrington, and Jeffrey Douma. He also received the Bachelor of Music (BM) in Composition summa cum laude from the Ithaca College School of Music in 2006, where he studied with Dana Wilson and Gregory Woodward. While at Ithaca College, he studied conducting with Janet Galván, which led to his appearance as a finalist in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Undergraduate Conducting Competition in Los Angeles in 2005. At that time, he also served as Assistant Conductor with the Ithaca Children's Choir and was Founder and Conductor of the Ithaca College Recital Chorus, which performed in two recitals under his direction.

Please visit www.dominickdiorio.com for more information.

Short Biography

Composer and conductor Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984) is Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music at Lone Star College-Montgomery. In May 2012, he will receive the DMA in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music. He has also received the MMA and MM in Choral Conducting from Yale and a BM in Composition from Ithaca College. In October 2009, he was one of only twelve conductors from around the world invited to Sweden to participate in the Eric Ericson Award, the top international competition for young choral conductors. A serious advocate of new music, he has conducted premieres of new music by Zachary Wadsworth, Tawnie Olson, Santana Haight, Dewey Fleszar, Kevin O’Neill, and his own compositions, as well as acclaimed performances of contemporary works by Stravinsky, Penderecki, Rautavaara, Pärt, and James MacMillan. Dominick sings professionally with the Houston Chamber Choir and also regularly guest conducts the ensemble in rehearsal and performance.

Dominick was recently named "Best Composer 2011" by HoustonPress for Klytemnestra, his new opera with Divergence Vocal Theater. The work has been called "dark, engrossing" (Edward Albee), "deeply psychological" (Sequenza21), and "spiky... an amalgam of contemporary opera sounds" (HoustonPress). In conjunction with the opera's premiere in April 2011, Dominick was featured on Houston Public Radio's noon-time arts program, The Front Row. He has been the recipient of many composition awards including the 2009 Young New Yorkers’ Chorus Nathan Davis Prize, the 2007 Allen E. Ostrander International Trombone Composition Prize, the 2006 Cantate Chamber Singers Young Composers’ Competition, and the 2006 Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Prize given annually to one young composer by the American Choral Directors Association. He has received recent commissions for new music from the University of Houston Honors College, Divergence Vocal Theater, Commonwealth Youth Choirs, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and the Cornell Chorale. Upcoming performances are planned for 2011-2012 with Houston Chamber Choir, Divergence Vocal Theater, and Juventas New Music Ensemble. His work is published with Alliance, Lorenz/Roger Dean, and Oxford.

Please visit www.dominickdiorio.com for more information.

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