Avner Dorman (Hebrew: ÃÂÃÂàè ÃÂÃÂèÃÂÃÂ; born April 14, 1975, in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-born composer, educator and conductor.
Dorman holds a doctorate in music composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied as a C.V. Starr fellow with John Corigliano. He completed his master's degree at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music of Tel Aviv University (where he majored in music, musicology, and physics) studying with Josef Bardanashvili.
At age 25, Dorman became the youngest composer to win Israel's Prime-Minister's award. He has since been awarded the ACUM prize for his Ellef Symphony. Ma'ariv newspaper in Israel named Dorman "Composer of the Year" for 2002, and the performance of his song cycle "Boaz" received the Israeli Cultural Ministry Prize for best performance of Israeli music the same year. Dorman's "Variations Without a Theme", premiered by Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in November 2003 and won the 2004 Best Composition of the Year award from ACUM. This piece led to a commission from Zubin Mehta, PercaDu, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for "Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!", a concerto for percussion duo and orchestra.
Orchestras that have performed Dorman's music include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In 2006, Naxos Records released an album dedicated to Dorman's piano works with Eliran Avni at the piano. In 2010, Naxos Records released an album dedicated to Dorman's chamber orchestra concerti. Avi Avital's performance of Dorman's "Mandolin Concerto" on this recording was nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award in the category of Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra.
Dorman's debut opera, Wahnfried, was named as a finalist for the 2018 International Opera Awards, in the category of "World Premiere". The work received its UK premiere at Longborough Festival Opera in 2025. Gramophone described it as âÂÂundoubtedly a provocative work, boldly confronting the darkest elements of Wagnerian mythology,â and âÂÂa stark reminder that past horrors continue to echo in the present.â The Times wrote that the opera âÂÂtackles big themesâÂÂart, nationalism, fascism, antisemitism, homophobia, politics and powerâÂÂwith a strong feel for balancing acerbic satire, absurdist theatre and harrowing history,â and called it âÂÂa timely mirror to the malevolent and racist ideologies that still exist today.â The Guardian noted the âÂÂirony in the operaâÂÂs titleâ and described the music as âÂÂmultifaceted in its referencesâÂÂShostakovich, Prokofiev, Wagner himselfâÂÂincisive, with often brittle instrumentation, and dynamically paced by conductor Justin Brown.âÂÂ
He was awarded the 2018 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music for his violin concerto, Nigunim, originally written as a violin sonata for violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Orli Shaham. In 2022, Nigunim had its NYC premiere when performed at the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series. The concert was supported by the Azrieli Foundation.
Dorman is a professor of music theory and composition at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. He served as music director of CityMusic Cleveland chamber orchestra from 2013 to 2019.