Daniel Dorff

Daniel Dorff’s flute music has entered the repertoire and is frequently performed and recorded worldwide; in the 5 years since its publication, over 30 flutists have shared YouTube performances of his Sonata (Three Lakes). Dorff has written 7 commissions for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s education department, and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Kinder Konzert series has performed his music over 200 times.

Recent performances include his Concerto for Contrabassoon by the Colorado Symphony, all-Dorff faculty recitals at leading universities, and two episodes of NPR’s From The Top. During the quarantine year, Dorff’s instrumental solos, duos, and quartets were a staple of many livestream-from-home recitals and self-layered videos.

Dorff’s works have been presented by Young Audiences (over 1000 opera performances in schools), the Atlanta Opera (60 performances), Baltimore Symphony (32 performances), Pittsburgh Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Chicago Symphony Radiothon, clarinetists of the Chicago Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic, pianists Jeremy Denk and Marc-André Hamelin, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis of the Cleveland Orchestra, and many of the world’s leading flutists. His orchestral music has been premiered by maestros including Alan Gilbert and Wolfgang Sawallisch.

Other commissions have come from piccolo legends Walfrid Kujala and Sarah Jackson, the Colorado Symphony’s Up Close and Musical series, Young Audiences, American Composers Forum, Ithaca College School of Music, and many other soloists and organizations. Dorff has also created arrangements for Sir James Galway and pop musicians Keith Emerson and Lisa Loeb. Daniel Dorff was born in New Rochelle, NY; acclaim began at age 18 with First Prize in the Aspen Music Festival’s annual composers’ competition. Dorff received degrees in composition from Cornell and University of Pennsylvania; teachers included George Crumb, George Rochberg, Karel Husa, Henry Brant, Ralph Shapey, and Elie Siegmeister. He studied saxophone with Sigurd Rascher and bass clarinet with Ronald Reuben. Dorff served from 1996 through 2015 as Composer-In-Residence for Symphony in C, in which he played bass clarinet from 1980 through 2002.

Dorff is VP of Publishing for Theodore Presser Company. A sought-after expert on music engraving and notation, he has lectured at many colleges as well as Carnegie Hall, won over 50 MPA Paul Revere Awards for Excellence in Music Engraving, and advised the leading notation software companies. He serves on the Boards of Directors for the Music Publishers’ Association of the USA, Charles Ives Society, Vincent Persichetti Society, Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia, on the New Music Committee of the International Clarinet Association, and has served on the Board and committees of the National Flute Association. Dorff’s compositions have been published by Presser, Kendor, Fischer, Keiser/Southern, Shawnee Press, and Mel Bay, and recorded on Albany, Bridge, Centaur, Crystal, Azica, and many other labels. Performers have uploaded over 400 YouTubes of his compositions and arrangements, which have received over 1,300,000 views.