Ariadne Greif, with her “luminous, expressive voice” (New York Times) and dramatic presence characterized by “fearless performances of raw emotionality,” has starred in operas ranging from Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias (as Therese/Tirésias to Atthis) by Georg Friedrich Haas (as Sappho), “one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.” She has also earned praise for her renderings of song cycles, including George Crumb’s and Apollinaire’s Calligrames, set to music by Albert Behar.

Musician and educator Leelanee Sterrett joined the New York Philharmonic as Acting Associate Principal Horn in 2013. Concurrently, she teaches horn at Rutgers University and New York University. Growing up in Petoskey, Michigan, she listened to classical music on Interlochen Public Radio, attended her mother’s community orchestra and band concerts, and began studying horn at Interlochen Music Camp as a middle school student. By then, becoming a musician seemed almost inevitable. “In the arts,” she said, “you really have to take on the challenge that seems insurmountable.” Before joining the New York Philharmonic, Sterrett was a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and she is also an alumna of Ensemble Connect, Carnegie Hall’s collective of young professionals and music advocates. In recent seasons she has been a soloist at Carnegie Hall, with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and at the 2015 International Horn Symposium with her Philharmonic colleagues.

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.”

Eric Huebner flashed onto the music world’s radar when he debuted, at 17, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Since 2012, he has been the pianist of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, a role that has allowed him to perform in many of the globe’s great music halls. A passionate devotée of twentieth and twenty-first century music, one of his touchstones is György Ligeti, whose études and Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano he recorded on the album Désordre. “In a way I could have never expected, the disc feels utterly timely. There is a sense of breakdown in the etudes, systems that fall apart or spin out of control, something which always seemed to be happening in 2020.”

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

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