| DANIEL
DORFF’s music has been
performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, commissioned five
times by the Philadelphia Orchestra’s education department
resulting in over 20 performances, and commissioned twice by
the Minnesota Orchestra’s Kinder Konzert series which has
performed his music over 200 times.
Dorff’s works have
also been performed by the Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh
Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony,
Detroit Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, and Eastman Wind
Ensemble; chamber concerts of the Chicago Symphony, St.
Louis Symphony, and Oregon Symphony; on the 1998 Chicago
Symphony Radiothon, by clarinetists of the Berlin
Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic, and by pianist
Marc-André Hamelin, clarinetist John Bruce Yeh, flutists
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Donald Peck, Mimi Stillman, and Gary
Schocker; and conducted by maestros Alan Gilbert and
Wolfgang Sawallisch. Other commissions have come from the
Colorado Symphony’s Up Close and Musical series,
Sacramento Symphony, Young Audiences, American Composers
Forum, Ithaca College School of Music, Symphony in C
(formerly Haddonfield Symphony), Network for New Music,
National Flute Association Piccolo Committee, Concerto
Soloists of Philadelphia, and other organizations. Dorff has
also created arrangements for Sir James Galway and for pop
musicians Keith Emerson and Lisa Loeb.
Highlights
of the 2008-09 season include the Philadelphia Orchestra
performing Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and the
Baltimore Symphony will give another 5 performances of The
Tortoise and the Hare, with a CD-autographing session on
May 9th at Baltimore's Meyerhoff Hall. In February 2009, the
Allentown Symphony gave performances of The Kiss, after
the painting by Klimt. In addition, Dorff will be the
pre-concert lecturer for seven Philadelphia Orchestra
concerts in March 2009. His new Flash! for piccolo
and piano will be performed by Kate Prestia-Schaub at the
2009 International Piccolo Symposium and at the annual
convention of the National Flute Association.
Daniel
Dorff was born in New Rochelle, NY in 1956; acclaim came
early with First Prize in the Aspen Music Festival’s
annual composers’ competition at age 18 for his Fantasy,
Scherzo and Nocturne for saxophone quartet. Dorff
received degrees in composition from Cornell and University
of Pennsylvania; his teachers included George Crumb, George
Rochberg, Karel Husa, Henry Brant, Ralph Shapey, Elie
Siegmeister, and Richard Wernick. He studied saxophone with
Sigurd Rascher. In 1996, Dorff was named
Composer-In-Residence for Symphony in C (formerly
Haddonfield Symphony), in which he played bass clarinet from
1980 through 2002.
Recent
premieres include Kate Prestia-Schaub in Flash! for
piccolo and piano (Murietta CA, January 2009), and Tiffany
Holmes in Trees for solo flute, premiered at an all-Dorff
concert at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair in February 2009
featuring Cindy Anne Strong as guest narrator.
Other
recent concerts have included the Baltimore Symphony
presenting The Tortoise and the Hare, performances of
Three Fun Fables by the Louisville Orchestra and by
the Aspen Music Festival, and 50 performances of Goldilocks
and the Three Bears through the Minnesota Orchestra's
education department. The 2007-08 season has included the
Rochester Philharmonic in 8 performances of The Tortoise
and the Hare; Dorff's new piano concerto being performed
in April 2008 by pianist Donna Amato and the Slippery Rock
University orchestra conducted by Warren Davidson, and the
New Jersey Saxophone Quartet presenting Dorff's Fast Walk
in Carnegie Hall on January 6, 2008. In March 2008, Goldilocks
and the Three Bears had its Asian premiere with 4
performances by the Malaysian Philharmonic in Kuala Lumpur,
3 of Dorff's chamber works for flute were performed at
Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and
the Nashville Symphony performed Dorff's Sunburst for
Violin and Orchestra.
Dorff's
popular Sonatine de Giverny has become well-known
through the Crystal CD featuring piccolo soloist Lois
Herbine and was performed 6 times in entirety at the 2008
annual convention of the National Flute Association.
Symphony In C (formerly Haddonfield Symphony) has recorded
an all-Dorff CD recently released on Bridge Records,
featuring Ann Crumb and Ukee Washington as narrators,
conducted by Rossen Milanov. The companion coloring
book for his narrated work Billy and the Carnival is
now given out annually to young audiences at the Colorado
Symphony's educational concerts. Laurel Zucker has just
recorded August Idyll for solo flute on Cantilena
Records.
Daniel
Dorff serves as Vice President of Publishing for Theodore
Presser Company; he is a sought-after expert on music
engraving and notation, having lectured at many colleges as
well as Carnegie Hall, and advising the leading notation
software companies. He serves on the Board of Directors for
the Music Publishers' Association of the USA and the
Executive Board of The Charles Ives Society.
Dorff’s compositions
have been published by Theodore Presser Company, Carl
Fischer, MMB/Keiser Music, Elkan-Vogel, Shawnee Press, Mel
Bay, Kendor Music, Tenuto Publications, and Golden Music,
and recorded on the Bridge, Crystal, Silver Crest, Barking
Dog, Capstone, Orange Note, Farao Classics, Northbranch, Sea
Breeze, Isis, and Meister labels.
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