Department News

The next big event for video game music in concert is happening right here in Bloomington on January 24, 2025! A collaboration between the Music in Games Society (pres. Sy Anderson) and NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble (dir. Dominick DiOrio), “Voices & Video Games” is a choral concert of captivating music from video games such as Risk of Rain, Xenoblade Chronicles, Celeste, Abzu, and more. All music is arranged entirely by members of the Music in Games Society and will be brought to life by NOTUS and a party of student instrumentalists. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear some hidden choral music gems performed live by a renowned ensemble!

For more information, visit the Jacobs School of Music Events Calendar.

Alumni News

Chris Neiner was selected by the Ohio Music Teachers Association (OMTA) as their Ohio Commissioned Composer’s Award for 2024. His commissioned work, a solo piano suite titled 4 x 4 (four by four), was premiered at the October OMTA state conference by pianist Will Keller.

San Francisco-based composer Patricia Wallinga is partnering with Philadelphia opera company Liberty City Arts in 2025 to present her new chamber opera The Sisters. The opera adapts the Amy Lowell poem of the same name, in which Lowell imagines visits with Sappho, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Emily Dickinson; the opera’s libretto is adapted by Wallinga from the works of all four poets. Liberty City Arts will present a public piano-vocal workshop in Philadelphia, PA on January 31, 2025 and stage a full chamber production in summer 2025.

Power. Respect. Hooves. Two brothers are fused into one centaur. They will have to work together if they are going to survive this comic drama sci-fi opera. But can they put their differences aside? Stream Ábel MGE’s (BM ’18) new absurdist hybrid-electronic opera-theatre piece here (for free), and find out!

Find more on Ábel’s website.

The Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society commissioned N. Lincoln Hanks (DM 2000), to compose a new work for chamber music that was premiered at the joint 2024 National Conference of Pi Kappa Lambda, the College Music Society, the Association for Technology in Music Instruction (ATMI), and the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors (NACWPI) in Washington, D.C., November 7-9, 2024. The premiere took place at John Hopkins University’s Bloomberg Center on November 8.

The twelve-minute work is entitled EDEN for violin, clarinet, cello, and piano and is based on certain important elements from the Garden of Eden story. The work is designed to be a companion piece to Quatuor pour la fin du Temps by Olivier Messiaen. A second performance of EDEN took place at Lipscomb University on November 14, featuring Carolyn Bailey (violin) Emily Bowland (clarinet), Alex Krew (cello), and Jerome Reed (piano). Here is a link to that performance which also features the Quartet for the End of Time.

Benjamin Taylor (DM ’14) enjoyed serving as a Guest Composer in Residence in connection with the world premiere of “I Find God in the Mountains,” his newest work for brass quintet.  Commissioned by the Sacred Music Project, this work was premiered by the Brigham Young University – Idaho Faculty Brass Quintet on November 5, 2024 at BYU-I.  Dr. Taylor participated in masterclasses, rehearsals, and private composition lessons while in residence on campus.  As part of this trip, he also traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah where he serves as an advisory board member to the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts. 

The 2024 Christ Johnson small prize from the Swedish Royal Academy of Music is awarded to Matthew Peterson for 

Högalidsmässan (The Högalid Mass) for mixed choir, brass quartet, percussion organ and string orchestra to texts by Gunilla Lindén. The jury’s motivation reads: “A large sacred work which, both in its accessibility and scope, gives an inspiring mission to many of the country’s church choirs. With a rhythmically varied and shining musical voice, Matthew Peterson breathes new life into the message of the mass, which touches deeply.”

Student News

Seven Korean women composers at IU—Yeoul Choi, Ye-chong Jeon, Euna Joh, Jee Won Kim, Eunji Lee, Jieun Ok, and Hyowon Shon—formed the group 이내 (ENAE). They held their first concert on November 9, 2024, at IU Jacobs School of Music, MC070. This concert featured Eunji Lee‘s 새야새야 Seaya Seaya, Jee Won Kim‘s 염원 Longing, Ye-chong Jeon‘s Mirror, Euna Joh‘s Kin Saranga, and Jieun Ok‘s 대문놀이 Dae-mun-no-ri.

In October, Younje Cho was honored with the Korean National Composition Award–Young Composer Award for his vocal chamber work, The Arrow and the Song (2021). Widely regarded as one of South Korea’s most prestigious honors for composers, the Korean National Composition Award recognizes outstanding achievements in music composition. Cho’s piece received the top honor in the Young Composer Award category.

Daixuan Ai has been selected by the American Guild of Organists for their annual Student Commissioning Project. She will compose a new 6–8-minute solo organ piece in collaboration with organist Katie Ritzema. The piece will draw inspiration from traditional Chinese folk music, incorporating its melodies and textures in a way that suits the organ—an exploration that is rare within the organ repertoire. Daixuan and Katie also plan to document their collaborative creative process through short videos, which they will share with the keyboardist and composer communities on Instagram. Follow them to witness how this exciting new organ work comes to life!  (https://www.instagram.com/daix.music/, https://www.instagram.com/katiekeyboard/)

Upcoming Events

(* Starred events are REQUIRED for IU composition students)