7:30pm doors • 8pm show
Miranda Cuckson and Michael Hersch
About
Michael Hersch writes music that is “viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative” (New York Times), and is regularly performed all across the United States and Europe. In addition to compositions that have garnered him both the Berlin and Rome Prizes, Hersch is also a formidable pianist, tackling everything from transcribed Renaissance motets to the gnarliest masterpieces of the twentieth century.
As one of the most regular performers of Hersch’s work for over a decade, Violinist Miranda Cuckson “a prodigiously talented performer who can make even the thorniest contemporary score sing” (New York Times), has become one the composer’s most trusted interpreters.
Now, for one of the first times ever, Hersch joins Cuckson in a special performance of his works. Selections include music from in the snowy margins, Fourteen Pieces, the weather and landscape are on our side, one day may become menace, The Vanishing Pavilions, and the wreckage of flowers. The combination of these two prodigious talents promises to be nothing short of spectacular.
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The Artists
His work having been characterized by The New York Times as "viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music ... claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity”, Michael Hersch is widely regarded as among today’s most gifted composers. Recent performances include those at the Lucerne Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Ojai Festival, Cal Performances, and the Avanti Festival in Helsinki, as well as new productions in Chicago and Salt Lake City of his monodrama “On the Threshold of Winter”, a piece described by The Baltimore Sun as one "of great originality, daring, and disturbing power". In recent years, Hersch has written works for the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Klang, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Alban Berg Ensemble Wien, and the Library of Congress. Upcoming recordings include his Violin Concerto with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the International Contemporary Ensemble as well as “Images from a Closed Ward” with the FLUX Quartet. Hersch has been the recipient of the Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, among others. Also regarded among today’s most formidable pianists, Hersch has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Violinist Miranda Cuckson delights audiences in the US and abroad with her playing a large range of repertoire, from the newest creations to older works. Combining a deep background in the classical repertoire with an adventurous and probing spirit, she works at the forefront of today’s music scene. She appears worldwide as soloist and chamber musician at venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Teatro Colón, Suntory Hall, the Library of Congress, the 92nd Street Y, the Guggenheim Museum, Monday Evening Concerts in LA, and the Marlboro, Bard, Lincoln Center, West Cork, Bridgehampton, Music Mountain, Portland, and Bodensee festivals.
She made her Carnegie Hall debut playing Walter Piston’s concerto with the American Symphony Orchestra. Her performances in 2017-18 include premieres of a violin concerto written for her by Georg Friedrich Haas in Tokyo, Stuttgart, and Porto, and the New York premiere of Michael Hersch’s concerto. Recent recitals include ones at the Miller Theatre, Strathmore, the Art Institute of Chicago (Frequency Fest), and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music. Her discography includes, most recently, music of Wolpe, Carter, and Ferneyhough (Urlicht) and Bartók, Schnittke, and Lutoslawski (ECM). The New York Times named her recording of Nono’s “La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura” a Best Recording of 2012. Her albums also feature the Korngold and Ponce concertos and music by Finney, Shapey, Martino, Sessions, Eckardt, Xenakis, Glass, Fujikura, and more.
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