Allan Kozinn profiled Metropolis composer Avner Dorman for the New York Times, after the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performed the U.S. premiere of his Azerbaijani Dance at Carnegie Hall on February 22, 2011.
“Avner Dorman’s music works its magic by melding far-flung influences and making them sound natural together. Depending on the score, an inviting neo-Romantic fabric may bear touches of modernist acerbity; vigorous, complex rhythms; themes built on Middle Eastern and Indian modes; Baroque figuration; or the accents of pop and jazz. Extramusical notions often animate the music as well. Mirage, a string quartet, evokes both the desolation and the power of the Israeli desert; Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!, a kaleidoscopic percussion concerto, builds on the mingled allure and peril of the substances in its title. …That process helped him transform the mandolinist Avi Avital’s request for a work for mandolin and harpsichord ("That sounded too plucky to me,” Mr. Dorman said) into a high-energy Mandolin Concerto that was nominated for a Grammy Award this year. And it led to Niggunim, Hebrew plural for a particularly soulful type of melody, which will have its premiere in a recital by the violinist Gil Shaham and his sister, the pianist Orli Shaham, on Saturday evening at the 92nd Street Y.“