Baryshnikov Arts Center

From 2009-2012 he was the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Festival of Music, South America’s largest festival of its kind, programming and curating concerts with themes ranging from Mozart celebrations to eclectic evenings of folk and popular music of the Americas, to hybrid programs fusing art and dance music of multiple musical dimensions. In the early 1990’s he was a medal winner at the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elisabeth Piano Competitions, and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then he has performed the classical concerto repertoire as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and his classical discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Barber and McDowell concerti with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. As a composer, Prutsman’s long collaboration with Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet has resulted in over 40 arrangements and compositions for them. Other leading artists and ensembles who have performed his compositions and arrangements include Leon Fleisher, Dawn Upshaw, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, Spoleto USA, and the Silk Road Project. In 2010, his song cycle Piano Lessons was premiered by Ms. Upshaw and Emanuel Ax at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, Disney Hall, and the Barbican Centre.  As a pianist or arranger outside of the classical music world he has collaborated with Tom Waits, Rokia Traore, Joshua Redman, Jon Anderson of YES, Sigur Rós, and Asha Bhosle. Passionate about the value of music for all, Prutsman is involved in several projects with missions to create enjoyable artistic or recreational environments for children on the autistic spectrum and their families.

In past years, the quartet has participated in the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute at the Manhattan School of Music and the Beethoven Institute at Mannes, and was the featured artist of the inaugural concert of the Under the Spire concert series in Southport, Connecticut. In 2014, supported by an award from the Marx Family Foundation, Puck gave the world premiere performance of Ascension, a new work by composer Jason Eckardt. Upcoming engagements include a concert with the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society and a return to Stanford as part of the part of the St. Lawrence String Quartet’s Emerging String Quartet Program in the fall of 2018. While participating in the 2017 Ensemble Connect Audience Engagement Institute at Carnegie Hall, Puck worked closely with members of Decoda to develop an interactive performance that they brought to community centers around Queens. They are currently engaged in developing ways to continue using this unique performance paradigm to bring music to all. The quartet’s principal mentors include Julia Lichten, David Geber, Deborah Buck, and Carmit Zori. They have received coaching from and worked closely with members of the St. Lawrence, Juilliard, Orion, Belcea, Tokyo, American, and Brentano String Quartets. Members of the Puck Quartet hold degrees from SUNY Purchase, Cleveland Institute of Music, New York University, and Yale University.