Avi Avital discusses the significance of his Grammy nomination and the story of the recording project with composer Avner Dorman and Metropolis.
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Avner Dorman's Concertos
Tune into the online broadcast 4-7pm ET on Sunday and look for Andrew, Avi, and David as they participate in the ceremonies.
Join our Grammy Nomination Party on December 16, 2010 at (le) Poisson Rouge.
Ilona Oltuski of
shares in the excitement of Metropolis Ensemble’s Dec. 16 Grammy Nomination Party at (le) Poisson Rouge.
“It is highly unlikely that anybody in the audience that evening will ever think of the humble mandolin the way they may have thought about it before hearing Avital play; he certainly changed my appreciation for it tremendously.”
“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.”
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 drinks are on the house. The party start @7 and lasts until everyone goes home. What’s not to like?
The Red Possum (as I like to call it) is located at 158 Bleecker Street (a sacred place for those of us old to have caught Thelonious Monk on stage there in a different lifetime.)
It’s a big year for Israeli composer Avner Dorman and his just announced Grammy nomination for “Mandolin Concerto” only makes it sweeter.
On the second Naxos CD devoted to the music of Avner Dorman, concerti take center stage. At first blush, the composer seems to display a palpable streak of traditionalism. Triadic language abounds in his works and he makes many tips of the hat to Baroque music and neoclassicism. But there’s much more beneath this attractive, if familiar, surface. Dorman is also interested in uncovering some of the undiscovered potential of the concerto, exploring its capacity for different narrative arcs and recasting the genre with some unusual protagonists.
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.
There’s more on the CD to recommend as well. The Metropolis Ensemble, with a passel of soloists in concertino tow, sparkle in the Concerto Grosso (2003).The work features virtuosic string writing and cinematic sweep. Indeed, here Dorman displays a fluency of orchestration that in places reminds one of John Corigliano, his teacher during doctoral studies at Juilliard.
One would be forgiven if they assumed going in that a Piccolo Concerto would be a piercing prospect and too limited a palette to work satisfactorily. I’m still not convinced that this is a genre that requires a plethora of options, but soloist Mindy Kaufman’s rendering of the Dorman concerto for the instrument reveals striking versatility. The piece itself combines jazzy rhythms, neo-Baroque signatures, and resonances of the pipes and whistles found in a variety of folk music traditions.
Written when he was just 20 years of age, Dorman’s Piano Concerto in A Major is a splashy technicolor work that embraces virtuosic showmanship, combining a prevailingly Neo-romantic aesthetic with occasional post-minimal ostinati. Pianist Eliran Avni captures the concerto’s spirit, performing its often dizzyingly paced passagework and cadenzas with pizzazz. While no one will mistake it for the mature voice found in the Mandolin Concerto, the youthful exuberance of the Piano Concerto is frequently charming.
From Bob Keyes on Sunday, Dec 12, 2010 in the Portland Press Herald:
Andrew Cyr, a product of the music program of Fort Kent public schools and founder and artistic director of the Manhattan-based Metropolis Ensemble, has a Grammy Award nomination to his credit. Metropolis Ensemble received a classical nomination for Avi Avital (soloist) and Cyr (conductor) for Avner Dorman’s Mandolin concerto, part of their first studio album, “Avner Dorman’s Concertos.” David Frost, who produced the disc, also received a Grammy nomination for his work on five albums, including the Dorman concertos. “It’s amazing. I am pretty thrilled at everything that is happening,” Cyr said by phone from New York. Cyr grew up in Fort Kent and received his degree from Bates College in 1996. He’s turned the Metropolis Ensemble into an important contemporary classical music enterprise in New York, and has found ways to encourage the creation of new work while recruiting new, younger fans to the genre. 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. “We made this recording back in 2007, and it came out in 2010. We never expected it to get this far,” he said. “We certainly dreamed about it, but we’re really surprised. “I was not even aware when they were making the Grammy announcement. I was working on a grant, working late into the night. The composer sent me an e-mail that said, ‘Congratulations,’ and a link.” Cyr clicked on the link, which took him to the official Grammy nomination page. He wasn’t sure what he would see when he got there, but one thing he was sure he would not: “I didn’t expect us to be there.” But there they were. A Grammy win would be a bonanza. A nomination goes a long way toward more recognition and credibility, for sure. Already, there’s a greater awareness of the Metropolis Ensemble and its effort to champion the work of emerging composers. “It’s just such an honor and a thrill,” Cyr said. “I guess what you could say it means is this: the academy listened and acknowledged that this is special music and a special recording.”
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 can listen to. This year’s Grammy nominations in classical music appear to show the results of this embarrassment of riches: a sampling of recordings so wide-ranging as to appear nearly random. It’s often said that the Grammy voters go for names they recognize, but the nominations this year may curb that tendency by not offering much name recognition at all. Works by the composers Steven Mackey and Michael Daugherty were both nominated for Best Classical Album; the five nominated operas were not by Verdi or Wagner but by Berg, Hasse, Saariaho, Shchedrin, and Sir Arthur Sullivan; and Mitsuko Uchida was the lone big name in a category – Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) – that included a mandolin concerto by Avner Dorman played by Avi Avital, Eliesha Nelson playing a viola concerto by Quincy Porter, and Joseph Banowetz performing a piano concerto by Paul Kletzki. No MTT (or a Hilary Hahn) in sight.
Early Thursday morning, Dec. 2, David Ng of the Los Angeles Times reported on the nominees for the 53rd Grammy awards, including your very own Metropolis Ensemble: Excerpt:
“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. “I wrote it using Middle Eastern sounds and a lot of North African scales and rhythms,” said Dorman in a phone interview.“
Composer Avner Dorman talks about his forthcoming studio album with Metropolis Ensemble performing his complete chamber orchestra concerti. Listen to the interview…
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers recently featured
in the ASCAP Audio Portraits series. The interview includes excerpts from the forthcoming studio album with Metropolis Ensemble performing the complete chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman (from our Fall 2007 concert,
). The new album, produced by Grammy-winning
, will be released this fall.
Avner discusses the intimate details of each of his concertos, including his inspiration, important motifs, and some of his personal story.
In October, Metropolis Ensemble is embarking on our debut studio recording. In the very capable hands of David Frost, 2005’s Grammy-winning classical producer of the year, we will produce an exciting new album featuring music from our fall concert, On Record. Each of the four chamber orchestra concertos from composer Avner Dorman will be recorded and scheduled for a late-summer release in 2008. Stay tuned as we continue to share updates about the recording, mastering, and publishing process over the next year!