Artist Interview by Barbara Siesel The Flute View
August 2016 
reprinted by permission

Please tell us about yourself -- your education, how you got into music and composing, current work etc.
I started playing recorder in 2nd grade and saxophone in 4th, and by 7th grade had become fascinated with harmony, mainly through studying Beatles songbooks. In high school I became captivated with classical music but was a saxophonist with no interest in switching to clarinet, so I started writing my own saxophone pieces to have music that I liked to play.

This desire to create music that people want to perform and hear was way out of step for academic training in the 1970s. I was often told that to express myself properly as a composer, I must write atonal expressionism because that’s the only valid style, and I’ve never understood this attitude. I’m writing to express myself, not someone else’s self. I was even accused by one professor of being honest in my writing, as if that was a flaw.

Despite the flak from other composers, performers were very interested in my music, and I did love my schooling at Cornell and University of Pennsylvania. I had the opportunity to study with wonderful composers and the self-confidence to know that all creative artists are subjective, and that I could learn a lot from these older masters who didn’t like my aesthetics.

After finishing grad school at UPenn, I began free-lance proofreading at nearby Theodore Presser Company, considering that as temp work until I got a teaching job. I didn’t realize their editor-in-chief was about to retire, and that he sensed my zeal for producing sheet music and was grooming me as his replacement. I hadn’t considered sheet music editing and production as a possible career path, but it fits me perfectly. I’ve been full-time at Presser for over 30 years, and it truly still feels fresh every day because there’s always new music coming in to work on.

You've composed many wonderful works for flute (and piccolo), how did you get interested in writing for flute?
Thank you! Being a saxophonist from the start and eventually a clarinetist, I can’t help but think like a wind player. In t9b5he 1970s, most saxophone repertoire was from the Paris Conservatoire, so my concept of idiomatic woodwind writing grew from these flute-oriented composers. Clarinetists are surrounded by flute players in orchestra, chamber music, and hanging around the practice rooms, so there were always flutist friends to write for.

The more recent wave of flute music came later from representing Presser at NFA conventions in my role as publisher for Schocker, Liebermann, Baxtresser, and many other wonderful composers and teachers. Making friends with flutists at conventions led to some commissions and performances, and I’m incredibly fortunate and grateful that these continue to spawn more performances and commissions.

Of course this goes hand-in-hand with my love of the flute as a vehicle for my musical ideas! Flute is inspiringly natural as a manifestation of a composer’s breath and voice, all the nimble agility one could ask for, and a wide range of colors and sizes. How could I not love writing flute music?!

There are several articles about my woodwind music at www.danieldorff.com/flute+clar.htm that go into this more deeply.

Congratulations on your 60th birthday concert which will be performed at the NFA convention on Thursday at 9am. What pieces will be performed and who will be performing? What is the genesis of this concert?
I’m totally fortunate and grateful to John Bailey for programming this concert, and to the 10 performers for participating! John combined an all-Dorff chamber music proposal from Cindy Anne Broz, with a proposal from Patricia Surman to perform my sonata, to create a jam-packed retrospective with diverse instrumentation.

Since Cindy is from San Diego, her ensembles are right there to play at the convention. Her wind quintet, The WindSong Consort, will give the first NFA performance of Cape May Breezes, a 19-minute suite inspired by the quaint town at the bottom tip of New Jersey. Following the quintet, Patricia Surman will perform Sonata (Three Lakes) which she’s just released on Centaur Records. Then Flûtes de Salon (Cindy Anne Broz, Ruth Mayhew Washington, Cathy Blickenstaff, Tracy Goodwin) will give the first NFA performance of It Takes Four to Tango, and end the concert with The Year of the Rabbit.

You have written a tremendous body of music dedicated to orchestral music for children, can you tell us about some of these pieces? What motivated you to write for children?
As with writing for flute and working at Presser, this grew from a combination of coincidences and passions. My first professional commission was from Young Audiences of Philadelphia to compose a 40-minute opera for their in-school opera company. My natural composing style (for adults) is full of tunes, and I love making people laugh, so putting this all together was a breath of fresh air coming right after the dry theoretical years of academia. Young Audiences performed this Stone Soup opera over 1000 times in 20 seasons.

Word gets around, and that led to a commission from the Sacramento Symphony to write a narrated guide to the instruments, specifically designed to keep American 8-year-olds engaged through a story, unlike the lecture-format of the Britten guide’s narration. My approach is always to keep the kids, parents, and musicians entertained all at their own levels, like the old cartoons we grew up on without realizing how much there was for the grownups too. The Minnesota Orchestra’s education department commissioned two pieces, one on Aesop fables, and another on Goldilocks, and the Philadelphia Orchestra has commissioned many narrated chamber pieces for their youngest listeners. While they all have music education objectives like contrast or variations, the real goal is for the next generation to like classical music because it’s fun to hear, and to foster their enthusiasm.

There are some interesting articles and audio clips at www.danieldorff.com/childrens.htm and many of these are also on youtube.

You are also VP of publishing for Theodore Presser Company, how do you balance your composing/performing life and your work at Theodore Presser?
My biggest problem is that I love my job! I tend to be enthusiastic about whatever I’m doing, and often I don’t want to leave work when I could stay on a project, but likewise, often I want to stay home instead and compose all day. Given that it’s a regular office job, and with years of balancing, it’s become easy to consider time boundaries in both directions. I don’t really do much performing anymore, although I miss it, but time just doesn’t allow practice and rehearsal commitments except for special concerts. Time management remains a challenge, but mental focus isn’t. When I’m at the Presser office, I’m totally that person with pragmatic and objective skills to serve our composers and performers, and when I’m home I’m totally the creative self-oriented person. It hasn’t always been easy to change gears that readily, but after many years it’s become a natural daily pattern.

What's coming up for you next year?
This summer I’m writing Desert Dusk for alto flute and cello, commissioned by Mélomanie for flutist Kimberly Reighley who’ll premiere it in May 2017. This October the Sparx Duo will premiere Serenade for Flute and Harp, a 15-minute suite based on a French medieval love song. Also in 2016-17 Cindy Anne Broz will premiere For Elise for flute and piano as part of an “all Dorff & Ewazen” CD for Albany. There are also a handful of other CDs coming out, and some non-flute commissions!