Azrieli Foundation Celebrates Azrieli Music Prize Winners With European Debuts In Warsaw

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. 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.

Celebrated violinist Lara St. John joins the Sinfonia Varsovia 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. 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 a work by prolific Canadian-Jewish composer Srul Irving Glick, featuring soprano Sharon Azrieli.

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.

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.

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. François Vallières)
Kelly-Marie Murphy: En el escuro es todo uno (In the Darkness All is One) for cello, 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.

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
Fulfilling the philanthropic legacy of David J. Azrieli, the Azrieli Foundation has been funding institutions as well as operating programs in Israel and Canada 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 eight priority areas including Music and the Arts, Science and Education.

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.

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.