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Music of Daniel Dorff

photo of Daniel Dorff

 

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.

Music by Daniel Dorff available from TENUTO PUBLICATIONS:

494-01337     ANDANTE CON VARIAZIONI for Flute & Clarinet ... 8.95
494-01416     DANCES AND CANONS for Flute & Clarinet ... 8.95
494-02684     DARK ROMANCE for 3 Bb Clarinets and Bass Clarinet (Quartet or Ensemble) ... 10.95  
494-02685     FANFARE FOR TWO TRUMPETS ... 4.95   
                           
download a 19-second mp3 excerpt (308k)
494-02801     FANTASY, SCHERZO AND NOCTURNE for Saxophone Quartet (SATB) ... 14.95   
494-02686     FAST WALK for 3 Bassoons and Contrabassoon (Quartet or Ensemble) ... 14.95  
494-02687     FAST WALK for 3 Bb Clarinets and Bass Clarinet (Quartet or Ensemble) ...  14.95  
494-02547     FAST WALK for Saxophone Quartet (SATB) ... 14.95   
     
                    Recorded by the Harmo Saxophone Quartet on Meister Music CD MM-1016 (Japan), 
   
                      and featured on their "Best of Harmo" CD
    download a 29-second mp3 excerpt (447k)  
494-02688     PEACEFUL JOURNEY for Cello and Piano ...  9.95  
                           click here for a Program Note about Peaceful Journey   
494-02689     SUNSHINE RONDO for Violin and Piano ... 8.95  
                           Here's an audio clip of the opening (30 sec., 477K MP3)

490-01145     THE DAY THINGS WENT WRONG AT THE PET STORE (11 Cartoons for Piano)... 14.95    
494-02813     THREE ROMANCES for Flute and Clarinet ... 11.95    
                           
See Mvt 2 at YouTube
494-02853    
TREES (after the poem by Joyce Kilmer) for solo Flute with Narration ... 6.95 coming in summer 2009
                            click here for a Program Note about Trees
494-02817     TWO CATS for Flute and Clarinet ... 11.95 new!
                          
click here for a Program Note about Two Cats

All prices subject to change.
last updated March 8, 2009.