Dorman's Discoveries

1st June 2007

“One of my favorite things as a composer is to discover and explore new instruments,” mused Avner Dorman before the Metropolis Ensemble’s (NYC) American premiere of his Mandolin Concerto in May. Another field of great exploration for Dorman has been with the vast array of percussion instruments as evidenced in his concerto for percussion duo Spices, Toxins, Perfumes! It receives its European premiere on 1 August by the Verbier Festival Orchestra (Vevey, Switzerland) led by Zubin Mehta. The performance features PercaDu, the ensemble for whom the work was written. In December, his percussive inquiries are further exhibited in his new Percussion Concerto, premiering at the Hamburg Philharmonic with soloist Martin Grubinger and conductor Simone Young.

Dorman’s explorations take him to Israel in September, for the Jerusalem Chamber Festival premiere of his new piano quintet Jerusalem Mix. Co-commissioned with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the quintet takes is title directly from a popular Israeli dish called “Jerusalem Mix.” The meal is a savory and spicy combination of meats cooked together and served in pita bread. Dorman’s piece mirrors this combination by using the diverse musical elements of Jerusalem’s ancient co-existing cultures to weave a harmonic cloth of Jewish, Christian and Arabic elements.


Mandolin Concerto   15'
alt.: Mandolin; string quartet

Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!   27'
2 Percussion; 3(afl,pic,bfl)33(Ebcl,bcl)3(cbn)/4.3.2+btbn.1/timp.perc/hp.pf/str

Percussion Concerto   25'
Percussion; 323+bcl.asx.tsx.2/4331/3perc/str

Jerusalem Mix   25'
Ob, cl, bn, hn, pf