Miranda Cuckson & Nurit Pacht Featureed In STRING FORCE 9/4

Pianists and Artistic Directors Blair McMillen and Pam Goldberg present "String Force," the third and last round of concerts in the Rite of Summer Music Festival, taking place on Governors Island Labor Day weekend, on Sunday, September 4th. The show will feature co-directors McMillen and Goldberg collaborating with two stalwart NYC-based violinists, Miranda Cuckson and Nurit Pacht, and will include rollicking violin/piano duos and solo piano pieces by John Adams, Mark Mellits, Manuel De Falla, Nikolai Kapustin, Sofia Gubaidulina and Toru Takemitsu.

Rite of Summer kicked off the holiday weekend on July 2nd with a powerhouse performance of Terry Riley's "In C" led by Jed Distler and a cast of 40 musicians assembled from some of New York City's most electrifying new music groups. To read Steve Smith's celebrated New York Times review, please click here. The second concert in this series on Saturday, August 13th featured the genre-bending rock/electronica-inspired string quartet ETHEL in a program of works by John King, Ralph Farris, Hollis Taylor, Marcello Zarvos, Rodney Yazzie, Timo Alakotila and Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham.

This marks the first classical-contemporary concert series on Governors Island, a place The New York Times has called a "Playground for the Arts." The aim of the Festival is simple: to present the highest quality live performances, and to bring free contemporary classical music to as many people as possible in a relaxed, fun, outdoor setting.
"Governors Island is home to an array of exhibits and performances; however it has never before had the opportunity to host a classical music concert," said Leslie Koch, President of the Trust for Governors Island. "We are thrilled that for the first time, the Rite of Summer Music Festival will bring renowned artists to perform free classical music concerts for Island visitors."

Each Rite of Summer show will be presented twIce The same day, at 1pm and 3pm, for each respective *date. Audiences should feel free to walk by, stop and listen, lay down a picnic blanket and relax, eat lunch, intermingle, and take in these exciting live performances.
Governors Island is a short 5-minute ferry ride from South Ferry, in lower Manhattan and a 3-minute ride from Brooklyn. Ferries and concerts are free. For a full ferry schedule, please visit www.govisland.com.

For more information, visit www.riteofsummer.com. 

*Rain dates/times for each scheduled concert will be the following day, also at 1pm and 3pm. 

On the Program

Suite Populaire Espagnole for violin & piano Manuel De Falla (1876-1946)

El Paño Moruno
Nana
Canción
Polo
Asturiana
Jota

Bagatelle, Op. 59, #9 Nikolai Kapustin (b. 1937)

Rain Sketch II Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)

Musical Toys Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931)

II. Magic Roundabout
IV. The Magic Smith
VIII. Bear Playing Double Bass & The Black Woman
XI. Sleigh with Little bells
XIII. The Drummer

Pam Goldberg, piano / Nurit Pacht, violin

Two Etudes (2006) Marc Mellits (b. 1966)

Medieval Induction

Defensive Chili

Road Movies, for violin and piano (1995) John Adams (b. 1947)

Relaxed Groove

Meditative
40% Swing

Blair McMillen, piano / Miranda Cuckson, violin

Blair McMillen, Pianist

Blair McMillen has established himself as one of the most sought-after and versatile pianists today. His repertoire spans from late-medieval keyboard manuscripts to the 21st century. Recent performances include solo appearances with the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, the Albany Symphony, Juilliard Orcehstra, Miller Theatre, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Caramoor, CalArts, the Institute for Advanced Study, and "Music for the New Century" at Columbia University. His first CD "Soundings;" featuring music of Debussy, Scriabin, Liszt, and Bolcom; was released to wide critical acclaim. Other recent solo recordings include "Powerhouse Pianists" on Lumiere, "Concert Music of Fred Hersch" on Naxos, and "Multiplicities: Born in ‘38" on Centaur. Mr. McMillen recently made his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist, under the baton of David Robertson.

Dedicated to new and groundbreaking projects, Blair McMillen is intensely committed to performing the music of today. He has premiered hundreds of pieces, and constantly works with both established and emerging composers in commissioning new works for the piano. Pianist for the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, Mr. McMillen plays regularly with the downtown-NYC based Avian Orchestra, the Locrian Chamber Players, and the American Modern Ensemble, among others. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, Oberlin College, and the Manhattan School of Music. An active educator, improviser, and self-taught jazz pianist, he serves on the faculty at Bard College and Conservatory. www.blairmcmillen.com

Pam Goldberg, Pianist

Acknowledged by many to have created the blueprint for places like Le Poisson Rouge and Galapagos, Pam Goldberg is an interesting combination of professional pianist and entrepreneur. Having concertized in New York in varied venues Pam decided to create a different environment for both performer and audience - distinctly different from the concert halls. The first was Classical Café, under the auspices of the 92nd Street Y where the highest level musicians played in a subterranean café to young audiences, who were able to enjoy classical music in a relaxed informal, setting where they could even, alas (!) eat and have a drink.

The results were so satisfying that Pam decided to expand to an even larger audience and Governors Island became the perfect venue. Again, top flight musicians but this time playing not to an audience of 80-100 but to perhaps, thousands. It is the first concert series of its kind on Governors Island and summer 2011 marks the inaugural season. The first performance will appropriately be Terry Riley's "In C"- the first minimalist piece with 40 musicians from new music ensembles including Newspeak, Asphalt Orchestra and Momenta Quartet.

Pam's work as a guest curator at Classical Café was praised in an article by The New York Times. Her background includes an MM in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music and a 10-year position on the piano faculty of the Diller-Quaille School of Music. Performing has been a major part of Pam's musical career; she has given numerous solo and chamber music recitals in the NY Metropolitan area. In 1999, she released a solo album featuring Schumann's Kreisleriana and Mozart's Sonata in Bb Major, K.570. Currently, Pam is in the process of editing (and therefore completing) Mozart piano and violin sonatas K. 301, 304, 378, and 454 with violinist Christine Sohn. www.pamgoldbergpianist.com

Miranda Cuckson, Violinist and Violist

In demand as a soloist and chamber musician, violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson is highly acclaimed for her performances of a wide range of repertoire, from early eras through to the most current creations. She leads a busily active life as a performer in major concert venues like Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, 92nd Street Y, Miller Theatre, and the Lincoln Center and Bard Festivals, as well as at universities, galleries and informal spaces. As a passionate champion of contemporary works, she has given numerous premieres of solo and chamber pieces and has in recent years been an enthusiastic and sought-after advocate in the area of new-music performance. She has recorded six much-lauded solo CDs, released by the Centaur and Vanguard labels: concertos by Korngold and Ponce, a two-CD set of the violin music of Ralph Shapey, and violin works by Donald Martino, Ross Lee Finney and Michael Hersch. www.mirandacuckson.com

Nurit Pacht, Violinist

Violinist Nurit Pacht was selected as one of the "Stars of the Year 2000" by Le Monde de la Musique and since then her career has blossomed with appearances in London's Wigmore Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, Moscow's Great Hall, Washington's Kennedy Center, Carnegie's Weill Hall, The People's Hall of China in Beijing and at Ravinia's Rising Stars Series. Chosen by director Robert Wilson to be the featured musician in his multi-media piece Relative Light featuring solo violin works by John Cage's and J.S. Bach, Nurit is equally at home in the standard repertoire as in the contemporary.

Last season, Nurit performed as soloist in collaboration with the dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones in one of Europe's greatest Cathedrals, the Duomo in Milan as well as at Kennedy Center and on tour in many U.S. capitals with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company culminating in performances at the Lincoln Center Summer Festival. She is now in her third season serving as the artistic director of the "Alliance Players," a dynamic group of musicians who perform innovative programs in New York City. Nurit performed in duo recitals with Philip Glass playing the composer's works for violin and piano. She commissioned and premiered works from other leading composers including, Michael Hersch, Noam Sheriff, Annie Gosfield and Octavio Vazquez.

Nurit has toured as soloist with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. She also performed the world premiere of Noam Sheriff's Violin Concerto Dibrot , a work dedicated to her, with the Israeli Contemporary Players in a radio broadcast from Jerusalem and in the Contemporary Music Festival in Tel-Aviv. Nurit was also the soloist on a tour of China with the Young Israel Philharmonic, performing in the major concert venues of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In the United States she has been a soloist with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Alliance Players, American Youth Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony. In Italy she performed with the Filarmonica di Roma, in Poland and Germany with the Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra, with most of the major orchestras of Romania including the Georges Enesco Philharmonic and with the National Symphony of Columbia.

In the spring of 1996, immediately following the cease-fire, she concertized in six of the worst war-devastated cities of Bosnia to enthusiastic audiences of the three ethnic minorities, with the sponsorship of the United Nations and the European Mozart Foundation. At the invitation of the European Commission she also performed on the occasion of the inauguration of the European Monetary Union in Bruxelles. She was heard at the festivals of Santa Fe, Mecklenberg Vorpommern, Divonne, Stresa, Kfar Blum, George Crumb, Tartini, Monadnock and, at the invitation of Christoph Eschenbach, performed in Ravinia's Rising Stars Series. One of her live performances from Wigmore Hall was released by Nimbus records.

Nurit Pacht grew up in Texas and made her first solo public appearance on national television at the age of 12. In 1990, at age seventeen, she made her U.S. solo debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and has since won top prizes in international competitions in Europe and the United States, including the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Switzerland. She plays on a violin made by P. Guarneri in 1750.
www.nuritpacht.com