Fiery and funky, Spark is a 3-minute ride commissioned by conductor Kirk Smith for his daughter, the young viola virtuoso Yvonne Smith, whose stunning YouTube performance of the work has brought Spark's excitement and beauty to thousands of viewers. Says Dorff, "Spark is just a short spark of an idea, designed to peak and conclude within 2 minutes. It has a lot of gritty drive, a polymetric parody of the Bach Suite that I had heard Yvonne play, some flavorings from funk and from the 19th-century German masters, and in the long run is a series of build-ups into a romantic tune that finally blossoms as the coda." For advanced violists.

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Text from the scanned back cover:

Daniel Dorff’s music for woodwinds, and for orchestral children’s concerts, has entered the standard repertoire and is frequently performed worldwide. He has composed 7 commissions for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s education department, and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Kinder Konzert series has performed his music over 200 times. Dorff’s works have also been performed by the Atlanta Opera, Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival, Eastman Wind Ensemble; chamber concerts of the Chicago Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and Oregon Symphony; on the Chicago Symphony Radiothon, by clarinetists of the Chicago Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic, by pianist Marc-André Hamelin, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and conducted by maestros Alan Gilbert and Wolfgang Sawallisch. His music has been featured at annual conventions of the National Flute Association, International Clarinet Association, International Double Reed Association, and International Horn Society. 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 came early with First Prize in the Aspen Music Festival’s annual composers’ competition at age 18. He received degrees from Cornell and University of Pennsylvania, studying composition with George Crumb, George Rochberg, Karel Husa, Henry Brant, Ralph Shapey, and Elie Siegmeister, and studying saxophone with Sigurd Rascher. Dorff served from 1996 through 2015 as Composer-In-Residence for Symphony in C, in which he played bass clarinet from 1980 through 2002.

A sought-after expert on music engraving and notation, Dorff has lectured at many colleges as well as Carnegie Hall, and has been an advisor to the leading notation software companies. He serves on the Boards of Directors for the Charles Ives Society, Vincent Persichetti Society, Music Publishers’ Association of the USA, Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia, and has served on the Board of the National Flute Association. Dorff’s compositions have been recorded on Bridge, Crystal, Albany, Azica, and many other labels.