“Could the mandolin become your new favorite instrument? It actually could, after hearing Avi Avital play it. Metropolis Ensemble, one of the most exciting  things to happen to classical music in the city, with Mr. Avital as soloist, has snagged a Grammy nomination for their CD of Avner Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto. Celebrate at Le Poisson Rouge, tonight, 8pm, free.”
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Just got a note from Andrew Cyr inviting Sequenza 21 readers (and maybe some other less distinguished people) to a free party at Le Possion Rouge tomorrow night to celebrate the Metropolis Ensemble’s Grammy nomination for its Naxos recording of Avner Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto (Avi Avital (soloist) and Andrew Cyr (conductor) with Metropolis Ensemble). Avi, Andrew and the Metropolis crew will perform a few sets during the evening, including the Mandolin Concerto and, maybe, Andrew says, even “a Balkan music jam.” Not only is admission free but the first two …

Indeed, it was for a work with an unlikely soloist, the Mandolin Concerto, written in 2006 for Avi Avital, that the disc has received the most attention. Avital’s incisive and nuanced performance has garnered a Grammy nomination. The Mandolin Concerto itself is one of the most adventurous works Dorman has yet composed. Its explorations of many timbres, orchestral effects, and myriad shifts of tempo & demeanor make it a dazzlingly mercurial and potent essay.

“Schumann was 27 when he wrote Kreisleriana; Timo’s 25 now. As far as I can tell, Timo’s right on track.”
-Peter Matthews, Feast of Music
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“With the success of the Metropolis Ensemble and now a Grammy nomination, Cyr stands at the apex of the classical music scene in New York.” – Bob Keyes, Portland Press Herald

From Anne Midgette’s article The Grammy nobody knowson 12/7/10:

In the wake of the announcements of the Grammy nominations last week, two Los Angeles Times bloggers ran a post observing that “the Recording Academy is so much more eager to reward commercial hits than the motion picture academy.” The statement can be debated, but one thing is certain: the authors weren’t looking at this year’s classical music nominations when they wrote it.
We’ve heard a lot about how the record industry isn’t dying because there are so many new recordings — more than anybody …

Musician Andrew Cyr was burning the midnight oil Wednesday, when he received a cryptic e-mail from composer Avner Dorman.

“Congratulations,” read the message, which also included a link to an article in the L.A. Times.

Cyr clicked the link only to find that he and Dorman had been nominated for a Grammy Award.

“I was so thrilled,” Cyr said this afternoon.

Dorman’s “Mandolin Concerto” was nominated for instrumental soloist performance with orchestra. The L.A. composer said that he wrote the 15-minute piece specifically for mandolin performer Avi Avital, who performed the concerto with the New York-based Metropolis Ensemble.

“A couple of weeks ago, the Metropolis Ensemble gave a single performance of Jakub Ciupinski’s Brownstone. Listeners, fortified with noshes and wine, trooped through three floors of a house in Brooklyn, while ten musicians and a soundtrack of nature sounds enveloped them in an acoustic landscape. At moments like this, new music sheds its academic strictures and finds its way back to the era of dinnertime entertainments.”
Justin Davidson – New York Magazine – Nov. 14, 2010
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Pete Matthews from FeastofMusic.com stopped by Brownstone on Thursday Oct. 28, 2010.

Excerpt: “I’ve always hoped someone would try to replicate that experience here in NYC, bringing with them that same sense of familiarity and warmth so often lost in the concert hall. Before and after the performance, there was wine, food and conversation with the composer, musicians and Artistic Director Andrew Cyr, who seemed genuinely thrilled by the outcome (even if he had nothing to do during the performance.) Everyone seemed to congregate in the kitchen, which is where everyone …