|
Biography
 Richard Bowditch
Susan Narucki and Donald Berman have established reputations as definitive interpreters of the American new music canon - both as individual artists and as a team. Each has an extensive discography in the works of major American composers (Narucki: Carter, Crumb, Currier, Davidovsky, Del Tredici, Einhorn, Imbrie, Ives, Kernis, Kim; Berman: Ives, Ruggles, Kernis, Levering, Wheeler, Boykan, and many others including music by winners of the Rome Prize).
Mr.Berman's acclaimed recordings of The Unknown Ives present premieres of unpublished works and new critical editions (by Mr.Berman) in the only recording of the complete short piano works of Charles Ives extant. On The Uncovered Ruggles Mr.Berman offers premiere recordings of unpublished sketches, transcriptions, and realizations of Ruggles' music by John Kirkpatrick. For ten years Mr.Berman devoted his energies to curating an exhaustive survey of neglected works by American composers sponsored by the American Academy in Rome - first in a 4-concert series at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and subsequently in a newly-released 4-CD set on Bridge Records. He is on the boards of the Ives Society and Art of the States. Susan Narucki is known both in the U.S. and internationally as a champion of new music. She won both Grammy and Cannes awards for her recordings of the works of George Crumb and a 2002 Grammy nomination in the Best Classical Vocal Performance category for Elliott Carter's Tempo e Tempi, all on Bridge Records. Her performance of Jacob Druckman's Salome with David Zinman conducting the Aspen Festival Orchestra was included in a 2-CD set commemorating the Festival's 50th Anniversary. Her recent portrayal of the role of Mama in Elliott Carter's opera What Next? was praised by the New York Times as "compelling and luminous". Ms.Narucki and Mr.Berman have performed together for years in myriad contexts. Now on recordings, starting with their collaboration on The Uncovered Ruggles (New World 80629) in 2005, and in subsequent releases of the works of Aaron Jay Kernis (Koch 7667), Charles Ives (New World 80680) and - in the Americans in Rome collection (Bridge 9271) - 13 other American composers, Berman and Narucki have forged a partnership for the ages in the presentation of American music, based on lifelong scholarship combined with an extraordinary interpretive compatibility. |
 |
