Kansas City Star: A cheerful tribute to nature and creation

John Heuertz of the Kansas City Star reviews the Kansas City Symphony’s premiere of Metropolis composer Avner Dorman’s Frozen in Time on April 30, 2011 with percussion soloist Martin Grubinger.

“Creation stories formed the backdrop of the Kansas City Symphony’s inventive concert Friday at the Lyric Theatre… Dorman, a rising young Israeli composer, scored this three-movement work for full orchestra and 23 different percussion instruments, principally marimba and vibraphone. All 23 of which Grubinger played with breathtaking mastery… The audience got so wound up it applauded after every movement, and kept doing it in the second half.”

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KCMetropolis: Interview with Avner Dorman

David Peironnet of KCMetropolis interviewed Metropolis composer Avner Dorman ahead of his premiere of Frozen in Time on April 30, 2011 with the Kansas City Symphony.

DP: Frozen in Time is music composed for percussion. That’s always interesting. How do you, as a composer, develop a musical idea when you are essentially limited to banging on things? AD: Well, listeners will notice that I use both unpitched and pitched percussion instruments. The pitched percussion instruments (marimba, vibraphone, crotales, glockenspiel, etc..) are as melodic as, say, a piano (the piano simply has hammers “banging on things.”) As far as non pitched instruments, I feel those allow for more primal music, music from before the age of tones, scales, chords etc. I also love the fact that in a percussion concerto the percussion soloist is upfront, turning our focus to it.

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