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Dixit Dominus (The Lord Said)

Dixit Dominus (1987) was composed in my final year of undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and despite the early date of composition, was not first performed until the summer of 2004, some seventeen years later. The work is a large-scale setting of the dramatic biblical Psalm 109. The work’s size, length, and taxing vocal difficulty have made it a prohibitive vehicle for performance by many amateur choirs. No doubt, the prototype for the sound I imagined for this piece was the 65-voice Concert Choir at the University of Wisconsin (in which I was a singer at the time of the work’s composition), conducted by the remarkable Robert Fountain. Dixit Dominus was premiered by the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Robert Fountain’s longtime associate and colleague Scott MacPherson.

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