William Shatner Total Eclipse Speech at IU (Complete) - WELCOMING THE DARKNESS

William Shatner delivers an original spoken-word performance -- WELCOMING THE DARKNESS -- at Indiana University's Memorial Stadium on Monday, April 8, 2024 in the moments before the total solar eclipse in Bloomington, Indiana.
Mr. Shatner is accompanied by musicians from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music conducted by Professor Dominick DiOrio. They perform "Eclipse Music for William Shatner" -- original music written for the occasion by Professor DiOrio and commissioned by the Indiana University Office of the President. The chorus for the occasion is NOTUS, the Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble.
Recorded by Indiana University Radio/TV Services and with gratitude to David González, Producer/Director for Media Productions.
With special thanks and appreciation to the Indiana University Office of the President, Edward Dallis-Comentale (Assistant Vice President for Arts and Humanities Research), Abra K. Bush (Dean of the IU Jacobs School of Music), Jeremy Allen (Professor of Music: Jazz Studies and former Dean of the IU Jacobs School of Music), Tricia Rivière-Stumpf (CEO of the IU Alumni Association), Eric Garabrant (University Event Services), David Villanueva (IU JSOM Choral Department Administrative Director), the entire IU Choral Department faculty and students, Joel Castro (IU Percussion Department Technician), and most especially to Bill and his wonderful team: Kathleen, Jeff, David, and Spike.
William Shatner's speech is copyright-protected and shared here with his explicit permission. Dominick DiOrio's music is copyright-protected and also shared here with permission. All further rights reserved.
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INDIANA UNIVERSITY JACOBS SCHOOL OF MUSIC ENSEMBLE
Conductor & Composer: Dominick DiOrio
Assistant Conductors: Michelle Kwok & Ryan Rogers
Flute: Alejandro Meza
Oboe: Yejin Kim
Clarinet: Paige Stafford
Bassoon: Jacob Lomboy
Alto Sax: Wes Taylor
Horn: Jeff Nelsen (Professor of Music, Brass: Horn)
Trumpet: Wayner Ramon Ortega
Trombone: Peter Bye
Harp: Theresa Labuda
Percussion 1: Drew Neal
Percussion 2: Armon Brooks
Percussion 3: Zhaoxuan Song
Percussion 4: Braedon Bomgardner
Percussion 5: Robert Torres
Percussion 6: Michael Sears
Violin 1: Erina Buchholz
Violin 2: Hua Zhang
Viola: Noah Morsi
Cello: Nicholas Hilliard
Bass: Fang-Ting Kristin Hsu
NOTUS (39 singers)
Sy Anderson
Emily Ballentine Erb
Erin C. Blake
Catherine Browne
Elijah Buerk
Carolann Buff (Assistant Professor of Music, Choral Musicology)
Daniel Jingyang Cui
Kathryn Davidson
Jeremy Do
Malcolm Doaks
Jackson Faulkner
Wade FitzGerald
Sarah Girges
Samantha Hark
Theo Harrah
Jennifer Hong
Baada Johnson
Daniel Myeongjun Kim
Amia Korman
Michelle Kwok
Matthew Luca
Nikki Manso
Gabriela Martinez
Eric Meincke
Thejas Mirle
Seonjeong Park
Ryan Rogers
Evelyn Rohrbach
Veronica Siebert
Niko Slaughter
Lauren Smedberg
Isaac Smith
Eirene Stavropoulos
Madeline Tokman
Ella Torres
Will Upham
Erik Wakar
Destin Wernicke
Eva Wilhelm
*****

[@lisamcdonnell8971]

so cool I love this!

[@syanderson_music]

Awesome to hear a recording of this! Sadly, his speech was mostly unintelligible on the stage for us!