Here is an anthem about inclusivity, equality, and equity of opportunity inherent in the Amy Lowell poem The Congressional Library. Commissioned by the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, the Cincinnati Children's Choir, and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra as a celebratory statement to rededicate historic Memorial Hall.

Composer: Dominick DiOrio

Dominick DiOrio has chosen the vivid and striking poetry of Amy Lowell for this powerful work. Lowell's poetry explores the awakening of one's passions by the arrival of a before-absent lover. DiOrio paints this internal exultation with glissandi in the voices, richly-harmonized chords and high chromatic ululations of a solo soprano. This was the first prize winner of the Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble's Emerging Composer's Competition. Duration: Ca. 3 minutes 30 seconds

Composer: Dominick DiOrio

Here is a reflective composition for a cappella choir that uses overlapping, repetitive homophonic textures which build to an emotional climax. This is a prayer for understanding in difficult times.

Composer: Shawn Crouch

This music is restless and unbridled, like a child who fusses and pouts when not wanting to be restrained. And it is optimistic like a child is naïve, until the final warning words of the work.

Composer: Dominick DiOrio

This one simple word, Alleluia has been the inspiration for countless choral compositions. Here is a new setting by one of America's premier composers of choral music. Written for the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, Craig Hella Johnson, Director for a recording of the composers music. This is accessible for good high school choirs, collegiate and professionals.

Composer: Kile Smith

This setting of the poignant and evocative Christina Rossetti poem Dream Land paints dark and brooding images of shadows, stars, and sunless rivers. The center point of the poem is the sad singing of the nightingale which the composer underlines by the sound of the flute. This is a companion piece to I Am.

Composer: Dominick DiOrio

Winner of the 2021 ACDA Genesis Project. This powerful and inspirational new work reaches across cultures, ages, languages and geography. Premiered by Conspirare at the National ACDA conference, this looks at 1st blush like it is beyond many choirs reach. However, the skill of Kyle Pederson is exceptional and his music is available to almost all high school, college, community, and professional choir.

Composer: Kyle Pederson

This was a collaborative project featuring letters written by elementary school students and answering the question What would you like to tell the earth? The answers are in three movements titled I Will Bless You, There Can Be No Numbers and To Fly a Plane

Composer: Various

Commissioned by Earl Rivers and the CCM Chamber Choir with a text chosen to celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death. Composer DiOrio has chosen Bass Clarinet, Violin and Vibraphone to accompany while using a liberal dose of tenor solo alternating with the chorus to mirror the alternating representation of the original text. The chorus takes on many emotional frames, depicting the colors and shapes inherent in each line of the poety. This music is high but never serious, just like Shakespeare himself.

Composer: Dominick DiOrio

Craig Hella Johnson's remarkable setting of verses by the poet Rabindranath Tagore creates a mesmerizing effect with music that is both ancient and modern. Ever in my life have I sought thee with my songs. Duration: ca. 4:30.

Arranger: Craig Hella Johnson | Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

Craig Hella Johnson's remarkable setting of verses by the poet Rabindranath Tagore creates a mesmerizing effect with music that is both ancient and modern. Ever in my life have I sought thee with my songs. Duration: ca. 4:30.

Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

The great poet and essayist Langston Hughes used the power of words to speak out against racism, division, poverty and greed. In this new setting of the poem Give Us Our Peace, we first hear the African American spiritual I've Been in the Storm So Long. Once the historical context is established, a treble chorus - representing the role of innocent children - enter singing Dona Nobis Pacem (grant us peace). Finally, the mixed chorus enters with the bluesy/gospel theme that carries the rest of the song. Powerful and inspiring.

Composer: Rollo Dilworth

This lesser known spiritual speaks nobly and poignantly of the lifelong heartache and desperation experienced by enslaved Africans in America. In this setting that features a soprano solo, the words of the third verse are those of a nineteenth century woman whose entire life was spent in slavery. The meditative quality of the music creates a pensive atmosphere that is spellbinding. Duration: ca. 5:00.

Arranger: Craig Hella Johnson

Longfellow wrote this text during the Civil War, while his son was fighting with the Union Army. The angst and agitation is clear in the text There is no peace on earth. Crotales or bells and bass drum are used for accompaniment but both can be covered in the piano if instruments are not available. This music is not difficult and is in the scope of choirs of a wide range of abilities.

Composer: Kile Smith

Setting an anonymous poem, the message is beautiful and relevant. Music truly is a magical art. It has the power to move and transform us. It gives deeper meaning to the important milestones of our lives. It gives voice to feelings and emotions too complex to put into words. Powerful and insightful.

Composer: Dominick DiOrio

Here is a short and poignant text seeking to sum up much of the wonder and uncertainty we find in our most meaningful relationships. I hope you feel like all of my life and you will. Newly-awarded ACDA Brock professional composer, Dale Trumbore captures the electric thrill of lasting and meaningful relationships in this lush, contemporary score.

Composer: Dale Trumbore

From Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare, this setting of a beloved evangelical hymn by Jonah Kliewer is both sturdy and transformational, projecting a sense of calmness and comfort. Duration: ca. 2:50.

Arranger: Jonah Kliewer

This English folk song, also commonly sung throughout the American Revolutionary War, tells the unfortunate eternal story of soldiers going off to war, leaving loved ones at home. René Clausen artfully uses the soprano sax to establish the sad, melancholy emotion of the text while the voices reflect the emotions of those left behind.

Composer: Rene Clausen

Donald Grantham has set the beautiful and descriptive Jane Kenyon poem in a serene and gentle musical pallet. With lush harmonies and much rubato within a slow tempo, this is atmospheric in its final impact.

Composer: Donald Grantham

This creative pairing of Amanda McBrooms's The Rose with the Praetorius' Lo, How a Rose e'er Blooming has become a classic at Conspirare's Christmas at the Carillon concerts. Incredibly moving! Performance time: Approx. 5:35.

Arranger: Craig Hella Johnson

This short unaccompanied motet celebrates the wondrous mystery of God made man with this rich setting of a traditional Latin text. Full contemporary harmonies will resound throughout your performance space supporting the serene melody. Duration: ca. 3:40.

Composer: Taylor Davis

This is a bold reimagining of Hildegard's chant, both tune and text. Actively quoting the source material, DiOrio's setting takes Hildegard's music as a launching point from which to imagine new sonic possibilities. This piece is meant to be experienced in the round, as the voices surround the audience and attempt to create an enactment of Hildegard's visions. Duration: ca. 5 minutes.

Arranger: Dominick DiOrio | Composer: Hildegard von Bingen

This is a meditative composition which uses ascending scale patterns to support an arching melodic line. This gives way to homophonic clouds of soft dissonances which build to a climax before receding back to the original material. This is a prayer for peace in the wake of tragedy.

Composer: Shawn Crouch

This 3rd movement in the three movement work The Gentlest Lady by Doug Brandt speaks of hopes that all mothers hope for but the mother of the baby Jesus will never experience. This is strong powerful music with an ending that is quiet and a fitting finale for this movement and the three song set.

Composer: Doug Brandt

Craig Hella Johnson is one of the most creative programmers, conductors and composers in America. This new work, with a text by the late young poet, Mattie Stepanek, is a simple and spacious setting of Mattie's text. Craig says that this should be sung quietly and expressively, never hurried, as if walking on hallowed ground while singing.

Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

With long sections of aleatoric sounds, a viola scordatura and a text filled with duality of imagery, this is an anthem for the advanced and adventurous choir. The viola (or cello) is not an accompaniment instrument but rather a full musical partner and will require a fine player.

Composer: Michael Ippolito

Singer/songwriter Eliza Gilkyson wrote Requiem as a song of grief following the Asian tsunami in December, 2004 and the song found a renewed audience after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region. This setting by Conspirare conductor Craig Hella Johnson has been long anticipated by choral groups around the world and is powerful in its emotional impact. Duration: ca. 4:10. Recorded by Conspirare - Craig Hella Johnson, conductor

Arranger: Craig Hella Johnson

This setting of a prayer for peace from the Jewish liturgy is a fitting work for our time. Opening quietly, it builds steadily to an intense emotional outpouring, then gradually retreats to a hushed conclusion. Duration: ca. 4:45.

Composer: Daniel Kellogg

This piece, written for the Houston Chamber Choir for SATB divisi with flute, clarinet, marimba, cymbals and piano and with a text by poet Julia Klatt Singer is a multi-faceted tapestry of sound and color.

Composer: Jocelyn Hagen

Written for a commissioning consortium through Chorus America, here is a beautiful and thoughtful piece intended as a quiet call to return home to discover oneself and to rediscover our home with each other. Long flowing lines with a beautiful and soloistic piano part create a feeling of peace and hope.

Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

Written to be sung in unison or in hymn-style harmony, this heartfelt work can be sung on any number of occasions in which the gathered community wishes to sing an expression of gratitude. Perform it as a tribute to a significant individual or for the many gifts we experience as a part of the progression of life.

Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

Setting the words of the 14th century Persian poet Hafiz and arranging the classic My Funny Valentine creates a dialogue between the Divine and the human heart. Both texts and the music highlight the quirky and odd aspects of being human and the heart's need to know love and to be loved. Each melody is introduced separately by soloists, then harmonized alone and finally juxtaposed to lift up the dialogue and bring it to completion.

Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

A carol of Joy - Dream every blessing we receive deep within this joy; a carol of peace - Here we are, breathing peace; and a carol of love - Love is always holding us. These are the powerful themes of the promise of Christmas and the tender moments shared in the new carol.

Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

With a text excerpted from the poignant and insightful Wordsworth poem, composer Shawn Crouch has crafted music that flows as if one long line or brushstroke of continuous sound.

Composer: Shawn Crouch

This beautiful new piece from Tom Trenney offers a kaleidoscopic musical setting of a powerful prayer for light, love and unity. An organic piano accompaniment knits the harmonic and thematic sections together.

Composer: Tom Trenney

This work captures the quiet drama of the Nativity, as viewed by a white barn owl - a wild, disinterested observer, a night hunter that is both unaware of the event's significance and yet close to its mystery. The minor tonality and sweeping 3/4 meter combine to create a mystical quality that will provide a fresh change of pace in your Christmas programming.

Composer: Doug Brandt

Written as part of the 50th Anniversary Tribute Concert of the Minnesota Chapter of the ACDA - to the music teachers that have inspired us, this text is expansive and can be used in any setting in which the intention is to invite awareness and recognition of the mysterious and loving tapestry of life. Woven into and between musical phrases is spoken narration, lifting up this extraordinary text by Michael Dennis Browne.

Composer: Craig Hella Johnson

Moved by the horrific Orlando night club shooting in June of 2016, Ellingboe set this poem to music as an outpouring of grief, yet also of hope, that all is not lost and that, indeed, This Is A Good World. The Kenneth Patchen poem was written and published during some of the darkest days of the Second World War. It reminds us that war will not last and, though some do go mad, God will not forget us.

Composer: Bradley Ellingboe

From the first intoning of the opening phrase of the text from the Hebrew Union Prayer Book, this expressive work is marked by warmth and beauty. In the rising of the sun and its going down, we remember them. In the blowing of the wind and in the chill in winter, we remember them. Duration: Approx. 3:00. Recorded by Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, conductor.

Composer: Donald Grantham

Honoring the humanitarian spirit of Dr. Richard Gieser, this is a work about the difference one can make by caring for those in need, and about the divinity inherent in every human. Musically, this exciting new work borrows traditional elements from the blues.

Composer: Dominick DiOrio

This setting of a traditional Irish blessing speaks of those who give support in times of trial with a musical tapestry of unadorned a cappella mixed chorus, using soft dissonances and free-flowing counterpoint. The occasional divisi creates a sonic wash of color and overtones. Together in song, we do not walk alone.

Composer: Dominick DiOrio