Miranda Cuckson’s sold-out solo PS21 concert last August proved once again that “her tonal luster and variety of touch enliven everything she plays” (Zachary Woolfe, the New York Times). One of the stars of new music in New York, she is “a fearless, visionary, and tremendously talented artist.” She has played countless concerts of contemporary works, as soloist and chamber musician. “The only downside” of her role as new-music champion, Anthony Tommasini noted, “is that audiences may not know how superbly she plays the standards.”

Prodigious cellist Matt Haimovitz has performed nearly every genre of music written for the cello, from Bach to his own arrangement of Jimi Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner.” He was the first classical musician to play at the New York punk-rock mecca CBGB. “An expressive maximalist, he calls forth a dazzling spectrum of sounds from the depths of his instrument” (Russell Platt, the New Yorker).

Percussionist Matthew Gold is a performer, ensemble director, and educator committed to exploring new sounds and presenting innovative and adventurous programs featuring new voices. He is a member of the New York-based new music group Talea Ensemble and the Talujon percussion group. Mr. Gold is an Artist in Residence in Percussion and Contemporary Music Performance at Williams College where he directs the Williams Percussion Ensemble and the I/O New Music Ensemble and is the Artistic Director of the annual I/O Festival of New Music. He serves on the faculty of the Composers Conference and Contemporary Performance Institute at Brandeis University and is an Artist in Residence at the Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat. He performs regularly with, among others, the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Albany Symphony.

Acclaimed as an “outright thrilling” soloist, chamber musician, and jazz pianist (Boston Globe), Geoffrey Burleson performs with orchestras and ensembles throughout North America and Europe, including the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Holland Symfonia, and Boston Musica Viva, where he is principal pianist. At PS21, Burleson rejoins Matt Haimovitz, with whom he recorded Akoka: Messaien Remix, a compendium of the composer’s Quartet for the End of Time and new works responding to it by David Krakauer and DJ SoCalled.

House Blend Concert I, July 5, 2021

Ralph Shapey Evocation No. 1 for Violin, with Percussion and Piano (3rd movement) (1959)
Billy Jim Layton Five Studies for Violin and Piano (2010)
Franco Donatoni Mari (1992)
David Sanford 22 Part 1 for Cello and Piano (1995)
Giya Kancheli Nach dem Weinen (Having Wept) (1994)

With Miranda Cuckson, Matt Haimovitz, Geoffrey Burleson, and Matthew Gold

House Blend Concert II, August 8, 2021

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644 – 1704) Passacaglia (1676)
Stefan Wolpe The Man from Midian (1942)
Conlon Nancarrow Study #7 transcribed for two pianos by Thomas Adès (1998)
Johann Sebastian Bach Actus Tragicus transcribed for piano by György Kurtág (1708)

The pianists, Steinway artists Steven Beck and Susan Grace of the duo “Quattro mani” and violinist Siwoo Kim

House Blend Concert III: August 19, 2021

Luigi Dallapicolla Tartiniana Seconda (1956)
Aaron Copland from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (1950)
György Ligeti Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano (1982)

With Ariadne Greif, Leelanee Sterrett, Miranda Cuckson, and Eric Huebner

House Blend Concert IV: August 26, 2021

Arvo Pärt Mozart-Adagio, for Violin, Violoncello and Piano (1992)
Paul Schoenfield Three Country Fiddle Pieces (1987)
Charmaine Lee solo (2020)
Maurice Ravel Sonata for Violin and Cello (1922)

With Emily Daggett Smith, Andrea Casarrubios, Blair McMillen, and Charmaine Lee