Winner of The American Prize in Choral Performance (2019), NOTUS is one of the country’s most unique collegiate vocal ensembles, with a singular commitment to championing living composers through the commissioning, programming, and recording of new works. Directed by conductor-composer Dominick DiOrio and a curricular ensemble at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, NOTUS has performed across the nation, from regional and national ACDA conferences to Carnegie Hall. In September of 2018, NOTUS released their first commercial album on the Innova label, NOTUS: Of Radiance and Refraction, which includes five world premiere recordings by IU faculty composers. NOTUS was honored to be one of only 24 choirs in the world invited to perform at the 12th World Symposium on Choral Music before it was canceled due to the pandemic. As part of the honor of being invited to the Symposium, NOTUS was named an IFCM Ambassador in 2022 by the International Federation for Choral Music.

Over the course of its history, NOTUS has delivered premiere or second performances of more than 150 new works in the choral repertoire. This includes recent commissions and premieres by Claude Baker, Don Freund, John Gibson, P.Q. Phan, Sven-David Sandström, Aaron Travers, and Zachary Wadsworth. NOTUS also regularly programs a rich and eclectic array of leading contemporary composers, such as Chen Yi, Eriks Esenvalds, Sofia Gubaidulina, Sydney Guillaume, Ted Hearne, James MacMillan, Nico Muhly, Tawnie Olson, Steve Reich, Caroline Shaw, Moira Smiley, Christopher Theofanidis, and Joel Thompson as well as music by their director.

NOTUS was originally founded in 1980 as the Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and it was renamed in 2013 after the selection of its fourth director, Dominick DiOrio. The choir’s new name was inspired by Notos, the Greek god of the south wind. Previous directors include Alan Harler (1980-1981), Jan Harrington (1981-1992), and the late Carmen Helena Téllez (1992-2012).

Albums

What Is Ours

Release Date: December 9, 2022
Catalog Number: NV6484
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
Large Ensemble
There are generally two ways one can face a crisis. One can give up, or one can persevere and use it to one's advantage. Choir director Dominick DiOrio definitely chose the latter during the pandemic, turning his reflections and sentiments about it into a profoundly engaging, almost philosophical choral album titled WHAT IS OURS. DiOrio conjures a formidable cross-section of music by a range of contemporary composers that not only reflects the diversity and multiplicity of modern-day America, but also its underbelly of struggle, challenge, and an eventual triumph of humanity.