Contemporary Vocal Ensemble

NOTUS, the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is the only university-based vocal group in the United States exclusively dedicated to the study and performance of vocal and choral repertoire written after 1900. It includes singers, composers, young scholars and instrumentalists chosen for their special interest in the music of our time. Depending on the repertoire, the ensemble adjusts its size to perform solo vocal, chamber choral and large oratorio-like compositions. After its founding in 1980 by Alan Harler, the ensemble was directed by Indiana University Professor Emeritus Jan Harrington until 1992 and by Carmen Helena Téllez from 1992-2012. It is conducted by Dominick DiOrio, who renamed the group NOTUS in 2013.

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Noted for innovative programming, NOTUS explores all significant styles of the last century as well as works at the forefront of today’s contemporary music scene. A special emphasis is placed on the works of living and emerging composers, especially notable works for voices composed by Indiana University faculty and students.

NOTUS offers an annual series of concerts at Indiana University and performs occasionally in outside concerts and festivals. Recent projects include the commission, performance and recording of James MacMillan's Sun-Dogs (2006), for chorus a cappella; the Missa ad Consolationis Dominam Nostram (1994) by the Mexican composer Mario Lavista, and the premiere and recording of Juan Orrego-Salas's choral-orchestral cantata La ciudad celeste (2004). Other notable projects are the American, Midwest and/or university premieres of John Adams's oratorio El Niño (2001); Ralph Shapey's oratorio Praise; Karlheinz Stockhausen's choral opera Atmen gibt das Leben (1994), Steve Reich's Tehillim and Desert Music; Music/Theater Piece by Philip Glass; Arvo Pärt's Passio and Miserere, Gilles Swayne's Cry; James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross; and several world-premieres by Feliù Gasull, Aurelio de la Vega, and Jorge Liderman. The Contemporary Vocal Ensemble produced and performed the first university-based performance of Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar and the world-premiere of Gabriela Ortiz's video-opera ¡Unicamente la verdad! (Only the Truth!).

Since Dominick DiOrio arrived in 2012, NOTUS has performed an eclectic combination of works for voices by composers such as Dominick Argento, John Cage, David Lang, Chen Yi, Melissa Dunphy, Eriks Esenvalds, Don Freund, Ted Hearne, Moses Hogan, Paul Mealor, Per Nørgård, Tawnie Olson, Sven-David Sandström, Caroline Shaw, Veljo Tormis, Dale Trumbore, Robert Vuichard, and Zachary Wadsworth. Major repertoire for the previous season included Nico Muhly's Expecting the Main Things from You, James MacMillan's Cantos Sagrados, Dominick DiOrio's A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass, Herbert Howells's Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing, and the monumental Sonnengesang by Sofia Gubaidulina.