Soprano Susan Narucki Performs György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments with Violinist Curtis Macomber in New Recording on AVIE Records Out June 20, 2025

                                       

Susan Narucki, soprano
For over three decades, American soprano Susan Narucki has forged a unique path; her dedication to the music of our time has led to award-winning recordings, critically acclaimed performances with musicians of the first rank and close collaborations with generations of composers. Since joining the faculty at the UC San Diego in 2008, she has been engaged in commissioning, producing and performing chamber operas that illuminate critical issues in society. Her projects have earned major philanthropic support from the MAP Fund, Creative Capital Foundation, New Music USA and multiple awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. Recent projects include Inheritance (2018), by Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Lei Liang, that deals with gun violence in America, and Cuatro Corridos (2013), the critically acclaimed chamber opera that addresses trafficking of women across the US-Mexico border. With a libretto by internationally renowned Mexican author Jorge Volpi, Cuatro Corridos had multiple broadcasts on Canal 22, Mexico’s art and culture television network; the recording of Cuatro Corridos (on Bridge Records) earned a 2017 Latin Grammy Nomination and was Critics’ Choice of both Opera News and Gramophone.
 
The soprano’s extensive discography includes music by Andriessen, Vivier, Crumb, Carter, Primosch and Davidovsky as well as The Light That Is Felt: Songs of Charles Ives with pianist Donald Berman (New World). Her recordings can also be found on Nonesuch, Angel/EMI, Sony Classical, Philips, Chandos, Naxos, Koch and Innova, among others. In November 2019, Ms. Narucki was nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Recording for The Edge of Silence: Works for Voice by Gyo¨rgy Kurta´g (AVIE Records). The recording was included in the New York Times Best Classical Tracks 2019 and named Critics’ Choice by Opera News.
 
A dedicated mentor to the next generation of singers, Ms. Narucki’s recent residencies include the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Aichi University of the Arts, the Longy School of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory. At UC San Diego she directs the vocal ensemble kallisti and serves as Distinguished Professor of Music.
 
Curtis Macomber, violin
The playing of violinist Curtis Macomber was praised recently by the New York Times for its “thrilling virtuosity” and by Strad Magazine for its “panache.” He enjoys a varied and distinguished career as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher, and he has for several decades been recognized as one of America’s foremost interpreters and proponents of contemporary music. Mr. Macomber’s extensive discography includes the complete Brahms and Grieg Sonatas; violin concertos by Martin Boykan and Laura Schwendinger; and hundreds of critically praised recordings of contemporary solo and chamber works. His recording of Roger Sessions’ Solo Sonata was acclaimed by American Record Guide as ‘one of the best recordings of 20th-century solo violin music ever made’.
 
Mr. Macomber is a founding member of the Apollo Piano Trio and a member of the Da Capo Chamber Players and the Manhattan String Quartet. Past memberships have included the Walden Chamber Players and the New York Chamber Soloists. He was for many years the violinist of Speculum Musicae and has also appeared with the New York New Music Ensemble, Group for Contemporary Music, and in chamber music series across the country and in Europe.
 
Macomber is a longtime member of the chamber music faculty of The Juilliard School and the violin faculties of the Manhattan and Mannes Schools of Music and has also taught at the Tanglewood Music Center and Taos School of Music. Other recent summer engagements have included Chamber Music Northwest and the Bard Festival. He holds his BMus, MMus, and DMA degrees from the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Joseph Fuchs and winner of the Morris Loeb and Walter Naumburg Prizes.

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