Miranda Cuckson
Magical Dialogues
In the open air of PS21’s fields, Miranda Cuckson (a “fearless, visionary and tremendously talented artist” — Sequenza21) plays an intimate concert of contemporary pieces for solo violin that are in otherworldly dialogue with music of the past: Salvatore Sciarrino’s Six Caprices conjure the spellbinding world of 19th century violinist Niccolo Paganini, and Reiko Füting’s “passage: time (copy)” transforms music of the German Baroque into a whirling, modern fever dream.
The performance is free, and will take place in James Casebere’s Solo Pavilion for Two or Three. No registration required.
GROUNDTONE is PS21’s new music festival—a weekend-long celebration of adventurous music making, with dazzling performances by fresh, singular voices from across today’s musical landscape.
The festival presents concerts in nontraditional, immersive settings all across our grounds—in the round, in the fields, and beyond.
Part of Upstate Art Weekend, GROUNDTONE is all ages, with something for everyone—free workshops and performances during the day, and ticketed shows each evening. Food and drink will be available all weekend.
Weekend passes are just $75. Day passes are also available for Friday and Saturday, or purchase tickets to any individual show.
Miranda Cuckson is a “fearless, visionary and tremendously talented artist” (Sequenza21), an internationally acclaimed soloist and collaborator on the violin and viola, whose repertoire extends from early classics to 21st-century experimental pieces. She has been a featured artist at the Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall, Teatro Colón, the Cleveland Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the 92nd St Y, and elsewhere.
Miranda recorded her first album, of the Ponce and Korngold concertos with the Czech National Symphony, in 2001. She has since released ten highly praised albums, including Nono’s La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura for violin and electronics, a New York Times Best Recording of 2012; the Bartók, Lutoslawski, and Schnittke sonatas; and her live performance of the Ligeti Violin Concerto with the UC Davis Orchestra. She has recorded Ross Lee Finney, Donald Martino, and Ralph Shapey, the Roger Sessions solo Sonata, duos by Elliott Carter and Jason Eckardt; the wreckage of flowers by Michael Hersch; Melting the Darkness, solo microtonal and electro-acoustic pieces; and violin music by a who’s who of composers.
A member of AMOC*, Miranda engages with the full gamut of musical expression. She has appeared at numerous festivals, including National Sawdust’s multimedia Ferus Festival, Ojai, Bard, Marlboro, Portland, Music Mountain, West Cork, Grafenegg, Wien Modern, and others; performed the Stravinsky Duo Concertant with the State Ballet of Georgia, the Barber Violin Concerto with the New York City Ballet, Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with NYCB soloists for the Balanchine centennial, and collaborated with the New York Choreographic Institute and New Chamber Ballet.
Miranda holds BM, MM, and DMA degrees from the Juilliard School. She teaches violin and chamber music at the Mannes School of Music and has led workshops and master classes at Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music, UC San Diego, UC Davis, the Peabody Institute, Brown University, Williams College, Rice University, and other leading conservatories and universities.
Special thanks to Jack Shear for his generous help with the restoration of Solo Pavilion for Two or Three.
