Avner Dorman via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other...
- Steps from Avner Dorman:
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
'mātriks / "source" / from "mater", Latin for "mother". We're real mothers for ya!
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
- Steps forward by: The Matrix
Who I Am & Where I Live
- Name: Avner Dorman
- City: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
- Country: United States
- Hometown: Tel Aviv, Israel
My Life & Work
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Bio:
Avner Dormanwrites music of intricate craftsmanship and rigorous technique, expressed with a soulful and singular voice. A native of Israel now living in the United States, Dorman draws on a variety of cultural and historical influences in composing, resulting in music that affects an emotional impact while exploringnew territories. His music utilizes an exciting and complex rhythmic vocabulary, as well as unique timbres and colors in orchestral, chamber, and solo settings; many of his compositions have become contemporary staples in the repertoire.
Dorman's music is championed by conductors including Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, Ricardo Chailly, and Andris Nelsons, and by soloists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham, Martin Grubinger, and Hilary Hahn.
During the 19-20 season the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra will present country premieres of Dorman’s music, and his new large-scale opera will premiere at Theater Dortmund.
The 19-20 season begins with the US premiere of Dorman’s Double Concerto,with Pinchas Zukerman, Amanda Forsyth, and the Boston Symphony orchestra conducted by Asher Fisch. Later in the season, the piece receives its Canadian premiere with the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Pietri Inkinen.
In April 2020, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Nimrod David Pfeffer will present the Israeli Premiere of the Double Concerto. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, soloist Cynthia Yeh, and conductor James Gaffigan will present the US premiere of Dorman’s most recent percussion concerto, Eternal Rhythm in October. A few weeks prior, Dorman will conduct the Romanian premiere of the piece at the Enescu Festival in Bucarest with soloist Simone Rubino, for whom the concerto was written.
Dorman’s newest opera, Die Kinder Des Sultans, features a libretto by Ingeborg von Zadow and will receive its world premiere run in April and May 2020 at Theater Dortmund. A story about two children on an adventure to find their father in a faraway land, the opera is intended for audiences of all ages and deals with issues of identity, diversity, family and love.
Dorman's first opera, Wahnfried, which garnered intense media interest and was hailed as a "masterpiece" by Opernwelt, returned to Karlsruhe in the 2017-2018 season for a second run as part of the Badisches Staatsoper staging of Wagner's complete ring cycle. The work was named a finalist in the category of World Premiere at the2018 International Opera Awards.
In 2018 Dorman won the Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music for his second violin concerto, Nigunim. As part of the award, the piece will be released commercially in September 2019, featuring soloist Lara St. John with the Orchestre Clasique de Montréal, conducted by Boris Brott. The concerto will concurrently receive its European premiere performances with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Steve Mercurio, and with Sinfonia Varsovia at Polin, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Dorman’s recent recording of Letters from Gettysburg was released in June 2019 to great acclaim. Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Allan Kozinn described the piece as a “wrenching score for choir, soprano and baritone soloists and percussion ensemble” and added that “Mr. Dorman’s colorful but disciplined, intensely focused style is suited to the subject matter, and he has produced a work that appeals to pacifist sensibilities by showing the devastation of war as human, personal and direct.” Amir Mandel of Haaretzwrote that “Dorman stretches the use of musical effects almost to the extreme, but achieves a work that is very beautiful to the ear and emotionally tight.” Susan Miron of Art Fusedescribed the piece as “an extraordinarily haunting five-movement work that elevates the experience of one man into a memorial to all victims of war.”
The 18-19 season featured several world premieres, including Nigunim for violin and orchestra, Double Concerto, Eternal Rhythm, Still (violin concerto no.3) premiered by Sayaka Shoji and City Music Cleveland conducted by the composer, and Now, a short, video opera commissioned and premiered by Houston Grand Opera.
Premieres from the 17-18 season included: Boundless, the first entry in Dorman’s innovative opera collaboration with Houston Grand Opera; a new suite,for Solo Violin, commissioned by the ARD competition in Munich; Four Marimbas, commissioned by Jianli Percussion; and Dancing with the Torah at Mount Meron, commissioned by ZOFO piano duo.
Dorman's music has garnered numerous awards and prizes. At the age of 25, he became the youngest composer to win Israel's prestigious Prime Minister's Award for hisEllef Symphony. He has earned several international awards from ASCAP, ACUM, and the Asian Composers League. His music is available on Naxos, Deutsche Grammophone, Canary Classics, and other labels.
He holds a doctorate in composition from the Juilliard School and serves as Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. Avner Dorman's music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer, Inc.
Contact Information
- Email: avnerdormanmusic@gmail.com
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Management/Booking:
MANAGEMENT:
Marianne Schmocker
marianneschmockerartists@gmail.com
FILM RELATED INQUIRIES:
Sam Schwartz
The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc. Talent Agency
4111 W. Alameda Avenue • Suite 509.
Burbank, California • 91505.
Phone: (818) 260-8500
PUBLISHER:
Andrew Stein-Zeller (G. Schirmer, Inc.)
Andrew.Stein-Zeller@schirmer.com
My Media & Markets
- ▶ Buy My Music (downloads/CDs/DVDs): http://www.avnerdormanmusic.com/recordings
- ▶ Website: http://www.avnerdormanmusic.com
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_j8V-QVLEiurOkW_i2ULmw
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/00jAOKzDuOUFGm3X0e7aef
- ▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/12qFJXLTy6cUV7td1f4xEQ
- ▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/2TbblDmBaBe88PwPmraWcG
- ▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/2cwszeCm8Dz0ho6SZHAU5l
- ▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/0btBsutTMcVtnYCOZFUFD8
- ▶ Spotify 6: http://https://open.spotify.com/album/1JwRq6vUNYrKw2CvQbNBzB
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
Orchestral Works:
After Brahms (for orchestra) (2015)
Astrolatry (2011)
Azerbaijani Dance (for orchestra) (2005)
Chorale (1999)
Contrapunctus IX from The Art of the Fugue
Double Concerto (2019)
Ellef Symphony (2000)
( Not ) The Shadow ( Not After Hans Christian Andersen ) (2010)
Prayer for the Innocents (string orchestra version) (2009)
Reflections (2011)
Siklòn (2015)
Uriah (2009)
Variations Without a Theme (2001)
Soloist(s) and Orchestra:
Cello Concerto (2012)
Concerto Grosso (2003)
Concerto in A (1995)
Eternal Rhythm (2018)
Frozen in Time (2007)
Lost Souls (2009)
Mandolin Concerto (2006)
Piccolo Concerto (2001)
Saxophone Concerto (2003)
Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! (2006)
Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! (reduced orchestra) (2012)
Udacrep Akubrad – Percussion concerto (2003)
Uzu and Muzu from Kakaruzu (2011)
Violin Concerto (2006)
Violin Concerto no. 2, “Nigunim” (2017)
Violin Concerto no. 3, “Still” (2019)
Large Ensemble (7 or more players):
Concerto for Violin and a Rock Band (1998)
Prayer for the Innocents (string octet version) (2009)
Works for 2-6 Players:
Consumed (2014)
Four Marimbas (2017)
How to Love (2016)
Jerusalem Mix (2007)
Mandolin Concerto (for mandolin and piano) (2006)
Memory Games (2011)
Memory Games (for ensemble) (2015)
Oud, Viola, Piano (2011)
Sonata for Violin and Piano (2004)
Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano (2008)
Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano, Nigunim (2011)
Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano (2015)
String Quartet No. 1 (2003)
String Quartet No. 2 – Mirage (2004)
Tree-yO! (1996)
Trio (2002)
Udacrep Akubrad – chamber version (2001)
Variations on a Simple Theme (2017)
Solo Works (excluding keyboards):
For Solo Violin (2017)
Suite for Solo Saxophone (2015)
Solo Keyboard(s)
After Brahms (2014)
Azerbaijani Dance (2005)
Dancing with the Torah at Mount Meron (2016)
For a Friend I Never Knew (An Anniversary for Lenny) (2017)
Karsilama (2011)
Moments Musicaux (2003)
Nocturne Insomniaque (2007)
Piano Sonata No. 1 (1999)
Piano Sonata No. 2 (2000)
Piano Sonata No. 3, “Dance Suite” (2005)
Piano Sonata no. 4, “Libi Bamizrach” (2011)
Piano Sonata no. 5 (2016)
Prelude No. 1 (1992)
Three Etudes (2012)
Chorus a cappella :
The Seventy Names of Jerusalem (2014)
Chorus plus 1 instrument:
Psalm 67 (2003)
Chorus and Orchestra/Ensemble:
Dialogues of Love (2014)
Letters from Gettysburg (2012)
Solo Voice(s) and up to 6 players
Boaz (2002)
The Fear of Men (2006)
Hayam Beini Uveincha (is the sea between us) (2002)
Mantra (2012)
Nofim (Sights) (1999)
Opera and Musical Theatre:
Boundless (2018)
Wahnfried (2016)
Electroacoustic Works:
9 Eighths (1999)
Accord/Discord (1999)
Dancing With a Mirror (2002)
Falafel (2001)
Impact (2006)
Sudden Void (2001)
Clips (more may be added)
The world's artistry via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other ...
... a project conceived and built in the fertile, fecund and atavistic ground zero of Bahia, Brazil initially for the discoverability of this singular region's dispossessed genius.
All explained in the window immediately below. Followed — beneath this window — by scores of magnificent artists, each leading to myriads more artists/categories. Inside this window also may be found our Brazilian record store radio, named by British journal The Guardian as one of 10 of the Best Radio Stations Around the World!
IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT
Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's not an East Asian nation. It straddles -- jungle and desert and dense urban centers -- both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. It absorbed over ten times the number of African slaves taken to the United States of America, and much of its aboriginal population was absorbed into the general population-at-large. Its people have lived under oligarchy, plutocracy, dictatorships and massive corruption, with elements of these still strongly entrenched today.
But!
Brazil has buzz...not the shallow buzz of a fashionable moment...but the deep buzz of a population which in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the tough slog through life they've been allotted by humanity's dregs-in-fine-linen, have chosen not to simply pull themselves along but to lift their voices in song and their bodies in dance...to eat well and converse well and much and to wring the joy out of the day-to-day happenings and small pleasures of life which are so often set aside or ignored in the European, North American, and East Asian nations.
For this Brazil has a genius perhaps unparalleled in all other countries and societies, a genius which thrives alongside peeling paint and holes in the streets and roads, under bad organization by the powers-that-be, both civil and governmental, under a constant rain of societal indignities...
Which is all to say that if you don't know Brazil and you're expecting any semblance of order, progress and light, you will certainly find the light! And the buzz of a people who for generations have responded to privation at many different levels by somehow rising above it all.
Raimundo Sodré, in a conversation ranging from New Orleans to Harlem and the South Side of Chicago ... through Appalachia and Irish villages and Russian shtetls and the unofficial symbol of Brazil's Bahian-born national music (the pandeiro) almost certainly having arrived in Brazil in the hands of Sephardic Jews (including conversos) fleeing the Inquisition, once remarked: "Where there's misery, there's music!"
A pandeirista on the roof. And it's not just music. And it's not just Brazil.
