House Blend is PS21’s annual chamber music series exploring a full range of adventurous music and creative modes of expression, fostering new collaborations specific to our place, venue, and audiences.
This stylistically diverse series surveys cutting edge new music and bold works of the past, creating new contexts for experiencing music in which even the familiar becomes surprising. All programs are developed for our space with an eye toward bringing virtuosic and thoughtful musicians together in genre-defying collaborations. Audiences are invited to go more deeply into the music with open rehearsals, workshops, artist talks, and informal post-concert discussions designed to guide the listener through the mysteries of these daring works. Brewed specially for the audience, House Blend invites listeners to experience vital music in stimulating new ways.
House Blend I Program:
Leo Ornstein: Wild Men’s Dance (Danse Sauvage) (1913) for piano; Nocturne (1952) for clarinet and piano
Claude Vivier: Pièce pour violon et clarinette (1975)
Lili Boulanger: Nocturne (1911) for violin and piano
Kaija Saariaho: Duft (2012) for clarinet
Igor Stravinsky: Duo Concertant (1932) for violin and piano
Rebecca Saunders: The under-side of green (1994) for clarinet, violin, and piano
Performed by Miranda Cuckson (violin), Adrián Sandí (clarinet), and Eric Huebner (piano)
About House Blend I
The opening program of our 2023 House Blend series presents a trio of sensational soloists exploring 100 years of bold musical originality, beginning with the radical work of Leo Ornstein. Rarely heard in public after a brief run dazzling audiences in the 1910’s, he was described then as, ''an evil musical genius, wandering in a weird No-Man's Land haunted with tortuous sound.'' Gripping works by Igor Stravinsky, Lili Boulanger, Rebecca Suanders, and Claude Vivier combine the violin, clarinet, and piano in original ways, with a focus on color and the senses. Vivier’s music in particular inhabits, “a twilight realm between reality and the imagination.” The most recent work on this program, Duft, is presented in memoriam for its creator, Kaija Saariaho, who passed away this June. A towering figure in contemporary music, she stated that, “If I had a religion, it would be music, because I find it to be so rich, so universal, so profound.”
This program features perennial House Blend standout Miranda Cuckson, violin, and New York Philharmonic principal pianist Eric Huebner, along with the House Blend debut of brilliant solo clarinetist Adrián Sandí.
About the Artists
Adrián Sandí:
Born and raised in San José, Costa Rica, Adrián began his clarinet studies in 1997 at the National Institute of Music of Costa Rica. He obtained his BM magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University, his MM with distinction from DePaul University, and his Doctorate in Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music. His main professors have included Ken Grant, Jon Manasse, Larry Combs, Julie DeRoche, Dr. Charles West, and José Manuel Ugalde.
Hailed by The New York Times as “a brilliantly cool yet tender soloist”, he is an active solo recitalist and has given chamber music and solo performances throughout his musical career in different cities in Costa Rica, Panama, USA, Canada, China, Guatemala, Mexico, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, and England.
As an avid performer of new music, Adrián is currently a member of loadbang, Ensemble Signal, founder of Ensamble ECO and has performed with groups such as New York New Music Ensemble, SEM Ensemble and has toured with Bang on a Can All-Stars. Regularly performing works of rising and living composers, he has had the opportunity to collaborate with composer/conductors Oliver Knussen, Tristan Murail, Steve Reich, Charles Wourinen, Hilda Paredes, Anna Clyne, David Lang and John Zorn.
He served on the faculty of Wichita State University from 2011-2012 as Assistant Visiting Professor of Clarinet. As an orchestral musician, Adrián has performed as the principal clarinetist of Wichita Symphony Orchestra for their 2011-2012 season, has performed with ensembles such as the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific and is currently the Principal Clarinetist of Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia.
Some of his recording projects include albums such as Ensemble Signal’s Harmonia Mundi release of Reich: Double Sextet / Radio Rewrite, the album Dying will be easy with the Richmond VA based improvisatory ensemble Fight the Big Bull, a solo work by Hilda Paredes in her album Señales, the music of mexican composer Juan Pablo Contreras in Silencio en Juárez by Albany Records, and has recorded/produced 4 albums with Ensamble ECO of music by Latin American composers.
Miranda Cuckson
Miranda Cuckson has delighted audiences with her playing of a wide range of music and styles, from older eras to the newest creations. A distinctive and greatly acclaimed soloist and collaborator, she performs at venues large and small, from casual spaces to concert halls. These have included the Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall, Casa da Musica Porto, Teatro Colón, Cleveland Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Strathmore, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music series, 92nd St Y, National Sawdust, and the Ojai, Bard, Marlboro, Portland, Music Mountain, West Cork, Grafenegg, Wien Modern, and LeGuessWho festivals. Miranda made her Carnegie Hall debut playing Piston’s Concerto No. 1 with the American Symphony Orchestra. She recently premiered Georg Friedrich Haas’ Violin Concerto No. 2 with four orchestras in Japan and Europe, and Violin Concerto by Marcela Rodriguez with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México. Upcoming concerts include recitals at San Francisco Performances and on tour in Germany, and a performance of the Haas concerto in Vienna.
Reflecting her deeply felt perspective as a multiethnic American, Miranda works with an array of artists from many backgrounds. She has given innumerable premieres, had many substantial works written for her, and works with promising young artists and the most renowned composers of our era. She is a member of interdisciplinary collective AMOC* and founder/director of non-profit Nunc. She has guest curated at National Sawdust and done programming of chamber concerts at the Contempo series in Chicago and Miller Theater in New York, among others.
Miranda’s many lauded albums include Világ featuring the Bartok Solo Sonata along with new works; a live recording of the Ligeti Violin Concerto; the Korngold and Ponce concertos; several albums of music by major American composers; Bartók, Schnittke and Lutoslawski on ECM; Melting the Darkness, an album of microtonal and electronic music; and Nono’s La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura, which was named a Best Recording of the Year by The New York Times.
Miranda is an alumna of The Juilliard School, having studied there from Pre-College through her doctorate, and she was awarded the school’s Presser Award. She teaches at the Mannes School of Music at New School University. www.mirandacuckson.com
Eric Huebner
Pianist Eric Huebner has drawn worldwide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music since making his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17. In January 2012, he was appointed pianist of the New York Philharmonic and currently holds the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Piano Chair. He has been featured in orchestral works by Lindberg, Stravinsky, Ives, Milhaud, Carter and R. Strauss among others and regularly appears in chamber music performances with musicians from the Philharmonic at New York City's Merkin Hall and elsewhere. In March 2016, he was featured in recital as part of the New York Philharmonic's "Messiaen Week" - a series of concerts featuring the work of the late French composer. Huebner has collaborated with the conductor David Robertson in performances of György Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, Olivier Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques and on the American premiere with percussionist Colin Currie of Elliott Carter's Two Controversies and a Conversation for piano, percussion and chamber ensemble. Recent solo recitals have featured the piano études of the late Hungarian composer György Ligeti and include appearances on the St. Louis Symphony's Pulitzer Arts Foundation Gallery series, at Bowling Green State University and the University of Michigan. From 2001 through 2012, Huebner was a member of Antares, a quartet comprised of clarinet, violin, cello and piano. First prize winners of the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Antares appeared regularly in major chamber music venues throughout the United States and worked closely with many composers on the commissioning of new works for its combination.
A devoted teacher as well as performer, Mr. Huebner is an Associate Professor of Music at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) where he maintains a studio of graduate and undergraduate piano majors and minors and teaches courses in 20th century piano music and piano literature. For several summers he was in residence at the Walden School, a program for young musicians that takes place each summer in Dublin, New Hampshire. Since the fall of 2014, he has been a member of the adjunct faculty of The Juilliard School where he teaches a course in orchestral keyboard performance. Mr. Huebner’s performances have been broadcast on PBS and NPR, and on radio stations KMOZ (Los Angeles), WNYC (New York), Radio Bremen (Germany), ORF (Austria) and the BBC. He has recorded for Col Legno, Centaur, Bridge, Albany, Tzadik, Innova, New Focus Recordings and Mode Records. A recent solo release on New Focus Recordings features Huebner in works by Schumann, Carter and Stravinsky. Mr. Huebner holds a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. He lives in Buffalo and New York City and is married to composer Caroline Mallonée.
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