The premier orchestra of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music has performed at Carnegie Hall and at the opening of the Bastille Opera House in Paris, among other notable venues.

Averaging 95 members, the ensemble has appeared under Leonard Bernstein, James DePreist, David Effron, Arthur Fagen, Stefan Lano, Kurt Masur, Gerard Schwarz, Robert Shaw, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Franz Welser-Möst, Thomas Wilkins, Xian Zhang, Gerhardt Zimmermann, and many other distinguished conductors.

Designed for the performance of smaller scale orchestral repertoire, the Indiana University Chamber Orchestra averages approximately 35 members. The ensemble has performed under conductors such as Marzio Conti, David Effron, Arthur Fagen, Jeffrey Meyer, David Neely, Christof Perick, Uriel Segal, and Carl St.Clair, among others. The orchestra performs annually with a premier choral ensemble of the Jacobs School, such as NOTUS: Contemporary Vocal Ensemble or the University Singers.

Photo: Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

Arthur Fagen has conducted at the world’s most prestigious opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna State Opera, and has led acclaimed orchestras such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. He has recently conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia.

Fagen has served as principal conductor in Kassel and Brunswick, chief conductor of the Vlaamse Opera and music director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra. From 2002 to 2007, he was music director of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dortmund Opera.

Fagen has made recordings for BMG, Bayerischer Rundfunk, SFB, and WDR Cologne. He regularly records for Naxos, with releases including a cycle of the Martinů Symphonies [8.553348, 8.553349, 8.553350], and a recording of Martinů’s Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 5 with Giorgio Koukl [8.572206], which was selected as an Editor’s Choice in the March 2010 issue of Gramophone magazine. Fagen has been music director of The Atlanta Opera since 2010 and is also chair of orchestral conducting at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington.

For more information, visit fagen.chronosartists.com.

A pupil of Bernard Rogers at Eastman, of Roger Sessions and Paul Boepple in New York, and then of Nadia Boulanger in Paris, the American composer David Diamond lived in Italy for some time, returning to the United States in 1965. He held various important teaching positions, from 1973 to 1997 at the Juilliard School in New York, and received a number of awards and distinctions.

Orchestral, Instrumental and Vocal Music

Diamond, against prevailing musical fashions, held to what he described as the Romantic spirit in music, a belief that allied him with composers such as Harris, Barber, Hanson, Schuman and Piston. He lived to see his music winning an audience, after years of academic neglect.

His orchestral works include 11 symphonies and three violin concertos, with chamber music that includes some six string quartets. His Jewish heritage is represented by his Kaddish for cello and orchestra and by settings of texts relevant to Jewish life in America in AHAVA – Brotherhood and Mizmor L’David.