© Carol Rosseg On 6 and 7 June, the Indianapolis Symphony will present the US premiere of Avner Dorman's Ellef Symphony with conductor Asher Fisch. The piece is written in four parts – the first three parts are inspired by Jewish poetry of the second millennium (1000-2000), each concerned with a different aspect of war. The fourth movement represents the third millennium and the composer’s aspirations that the poetry of the third millennium will not have to deal with wars. The movements are based on works by Shmuel ha-Nagid (993-1056), Haim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934) Israel’s National Poet, and the young Israeli poet Yuval Rappaport (b. 1975).

Dorman composed his Ellef Symphony when he was only 25 for the Young-Euro-Classical Festival in Berlin in 2000. Ellef means “one thousand” in Hebrew and was written in honor of the year 2000. The symphony was first performed by the Young Israel Philharmonic on 13 August 2000 at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin and went on to win ACUM’s Golden Feather Award in 2001, and was one of three pieces for which the composer received Israel’s prestigious Prime Minister’s Award in 2000.