The Azrieli Foundation Celebrates Azrieli Music Prize Winners with European Debuts in Warsaw and Prague

Kelly-Marie Murphy and Aver Dorman

The famed Sinfonia Varsovia perform the European debuts of works by 2018 Azrieli Music Prize-winners Kelly-Marie Murphy and Avner Dorman on September 15 at POLIN – The Museum of the History of Polish Jews – as part of the composers’ prize package. Two days later on September 17, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra performs the Czech debut of the same prize-winning works at the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House in Prague. The concert marks the symphony’s opening concert of the 2019/20 season with its new music director, Steven Mercurio.

Established in 2014 by the Azrieli Foundation, the Azrieli Music Prizes offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance and celebration of excellence in music composition.

For both concerts, celebrated violinist Lara St. John joins the orchestra in Avner Dorman’s Nigunim for Violin and Orchestra and COULOIR (cellist Ariel Barnes and harpist Heidi Krutzen) join for Murphy’s En el escuro es todo uno (In the Darkness All is One) – a double concerto for cello, harp and orchestra. On September 15, Israeli conductor Yoav Talmi leads the orchestra in both works plus one of his own. The program is completed with a Moishe Weinberg work and an arrangement of Seven Tableaux from the Song of Songs by prolific Canadian-Jewish composer Srul Irving Glick, featuring soprano Sharon Azrieli. On September 17, additional works of the evening include the same work by Srul Irving Glick, plus works by Mahler and American composer Leon Stein.

Just days ahead of these two concerts, both prize-winning works by Dorman and Murphy receive their world premiere recording on a new album released by Analekta featuring the same soloists – Lara St. John and COULOIR – with the Orchestre Classique de Montréal conducted by Boris Brott. Titled New Jewish Music Vol. 2, the album also includes the new arrangement of Glick’s Seven Tableaux from the Song of Songs featuring soprano Sharon Azrieli. New Jewish Music Vol. 2 is available in Canada and digitally worldwide on September 13, 2019. The album comes to the United States on October 4 and Europe in late October. 

In 2018, the Azrieli Foundation awarded Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music for writing “the best new major work of Jewish music” for his composition, Nigunim for Violin and Orchestra. The original violin sonata version of Nigunim was premiered in New York in 2011 by the renowned Gil and Orli Shaham, for whom it was written. In the following years, Dorman orchestrated the piano part and heavily revised it to reach the form in which Nigunim won the 2018 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music.

Dorman explains, “I tried to bring more of the folk elements and rhythmic variety to the fore through orchestral colors. “Often by using instruments in unusual ranges and with unorthodox performance techniques. I think the biggest challenge was to preserve the role of the original piano part without overwhelming the violin and maintaining a balance that makes the piece sound like a genuine concerto.”

Also in 2018, The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music was awarded to Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy to create the work En el escuro es todo uno (In the Darkness All is One). Seeking to encourage composers to creatively and critically engage with the question “What is Jewish music?”, the Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music is given to the composer who proposes a response in the shape of a musical work that displays the utmost creativity, artistry and musical excellence.

The title, En el escuro es todo uno, comes from a Sephardic proverb that, in Murphy’s words, “encourages us to understand that we are all equal; once you remove the trappings of society and economy, we are more similar than we are different. Each of the four movements uses music from the Sephardic tradition as its source; specifically, Ladino [the language of Spanish and Portuguese Jews] folk songs. I chose songs that were somehow related to women’s lives and the importance of ‘mother.’ The concept can be as literal as mother to children, or as broad as Israel as the mother of the faith.”

Both the album and these prominent international performances comprise a portion of the Azrieli Music Prize package, valued at over 200,000 CAD each for Dorman and Murphy. These tremendous opportunities seek to fulfill the Azrieli Foundation’s pursuit to of its belief in music as a vital human endeavour that allows humankind to express it creativity; to expand its worldview; and to foster positive cultural exchanges. Through the Azrieli Music Initiatives (AMI), the Foundation is committed to discovering, elevating and amplifying artistic voices, granting broad access to meaningful musical experiences that both exhibit artistic excellence and advance our shared pursuit of learning and wellness. In this way, AMI creates meaningful and practical realizations of the Foundation’s mission to improve the lives of present and future generations.

Performance Details:

Sunday, September 15, 2019 | 7:00 PM
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Anielewicza 6, 00-157 Warsaw, Poland

Program:
Yoav Talmi: Elegy for Strings, Timpani and Accordion (“Dachau Reflections”)
Srul Irving Glick: “O Let Him Kiss Me” and “I am Dark but Lovely” from Seven Tableaux from The Song of Songs (arr. Francois Vallières)
Kelly-Marie Murphy: En el escuro es todo uno (In the Darkness All is One) for violoncello, harp and orchestra
Avner Dorman: Nigunim for Violin and Orchestra
Moishe Weinberg: Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes

Artists:
Sinfonia Varsovia
Yoav Talmi, conductor
Sharon Azrieli, soprano
Lara St. John, violin
COULOIR
    Ariel Barnes, cello
    Heidi Krutzen, harp

Tickets and more information available at https://www.polin.pl/en/azrieli-music-prize?d=0. 

Tuesday, September 17, 2019 | 7:30 PM
Municipal House, Smetana Hall
nám. Republiky 1090/5, 110 00 Staré Mesto, Czechia

Program:
Leon Stein: “Dance of the Joyous” from Three Hassidic Dances
Srul Irving Glick: “O Let Him Kiss Me” and “How Beautiful You Are My Love” from
Seven Tableaux from The Song of Songs (arr. Francois Vallières)
Avner Dorman: Nigunim for Violin and Orchestra
Kelly-Marie Murphy: En el escuro es todo uno (In the Darkness All is One) for violoncello, harp and orchestra
Gustav Mahler: “Adagio” from Symphony No. 10

Artists:
Czech National Symphony Orchestra
Steven Mercurio, conductor
Sharon Azrieli, soprano
Lara St. John, violin
COULOIR
     Ariel Barnes, cello
     Heidi Krutzen, harp

Tickets, 150-600 Kc, and more information available at https://www.cnso.cz/en/program/concert-season/season-27/koncert-vitezu-azrieliho-nadace

The upcoming 2020 Azrieli Music Prizes will award an additional third prize: The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music. This prize is offered to a Canadian composer to create a new musical work that creatively and critically engages with the challenges of composing concert music in Canada today. 

About The Azrieli Foundation
One of the largest philanthropic foundations in Canada and in Israel, the Azrieli Foundation fulfills the philanthropic legacy of David J. Azrieli and has been funding institutions as well as operating programs since 1989. Driven by a strong belief in the powerful role and responsibility of philanthropy, the foundation empowers and supports a broad range of organizations in its eight priority funding areas: Education, Fellowships, Community, Holocaust Education & Legacy, Science, Research & Healthcare, Neurodevelopment, Architecture, Design & Engineering, and Music & Arts. Its activities reach a diversity of people, places and needs. 

About Kelly-Marie Murphy, 2018 Azrieli Commission Winner
With music described as “breathtaking” (Kitchener-Waterloo Record), “imaginative and expressive” (The National Post), “a pulse-pounding barrage on the senses” (The Globe and Mail), and “Bartok on steroids” (Birmingham News), Kelly-Marie Murphy’s voice is well known on the Canadian music scene. She has created a number of memorable works for some of Canada’s leading performers and ensembles, including the Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, The Gryphon Trio, James Campbell, Shauna Rolston, the Cecilia and Afiara String Quartets, and Judy Loman.

Kelly-Marie Murphy was born on a NATO base in Sardegna, Italy, and grew up on Canadian Armed Forces bases all across Canada. She began her studies in composition at the University of Calgary with William Jordan and Allan Bell, and later received a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Leeds, England, where she studied with Philip Wilby. After living and working for many years in the Washington D.C. area where she was designated "an alien of extraordinary ability" by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, she is now based in Ottawa. 

About Avner Dorman, 2018 Azrieli Prize Winner
A native of Israel now living in the United States, Avner Dorman draws on a variety of cultural and historical influences in composing, resulting in music that affects an emotional impact while exploring new territories. His music utilizes an exciting and complex rhythmic vocabulary, as well as unique timbres and colors in orchestral, chamber, and solo settings; many of his compositions have become contemporary staples in the repertoire. Dorman's music is championed by conductors including Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, Ricardo Chailly, and Andris Nelsons, and by soloists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham, Martin Grubinger, and Hilary Hahn.

During the 2019-2020 season the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra will present country premieres of Dorman’s music, and his new large-scale opera will premiere at Theater Dortmund.

Dorman's music has garnered numerous awards and prizes. Most recently, he won the 2018 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music, and his debut opera, Wahnfried, was named a finalist in the category of World Premiere at the International Opera Awards. At the age of 25, Dorman became the youngest composer to win Israel's prestigious Prime Minister's Award for his Ellef Symphony. He has earned several international awards from ASCAP, ACUM, and the Asian Composers League. He holds a doctorate in composition from the Juilliard School and serves as Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College.