Susan Grace and Steven Beck have earned recognition as soloists and chamber musicians and now come together to form one of the most dynamic piano duos before the concert-going public. Quattro Mani's intense involvement with modern repertoire has led to dedications and collaborations with leading composers, including George Crumb, Paul Lansky, Tod Machover, Poul Ruders, Michael Daugherty and Fred Lerdahl. Their first two recordings, Lounge Lizards and Restructures, were released by Bridge Records to critical acclaim, featuring works by American and European composers. A third recording of Stefan Wolpe two-piano works will be released in April, 2019.
Their first concerto performance of Paul Lansky's Shapeshifters and Fitkin’s Circuit with the Austin Symphony Orchestra had such chemistry that on that occasion, The Austin Chronicle named the Austin Symphony Orchestra with Quattro Mani as one of the Top 10 Classical Treasures of 2013. “On a fine program mixing old and new music, the 21st century works by Fitkin and Lansky struck sparks—the former deliciously mercurial, the latter pleasurably suspenseful.” Other performances include the Alabama Symphony, Colorado College Intermezzo Series and Summer Music Festival, Colorado Symphony Drum Show, as well as Subculture, Bargemusic, National Sawdust and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall, all in NY, La Labortoire Cambridge, and Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Quattro Mani records for and is managed by Bridge Records.
Poul Ruders (b. 1949) is one of the era’s most highly regarded composers for both the opera stage and the symphonic concert hall. His operas have been staged in Copenhagen, New York City, London, Toronto and Munich, and his orchestral music commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Ruders lives a spartan life in the countryside of Denmark. The isolation has afforded him the opportunity to produce a deep and highly varied catalog which includes five operas, 45 symphonic works and concertos, and dozens of chamber and solo pieces. The music of Poul Ruders has been well-documented by the record labels DaCapo (Denmark) and Bridge (USA), and is published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen.
In 2019, Poul Ruders will celebrate his 70th birthday with the world premiere of his newest opera, The Thirteenth Child, staged by the Santa Fe Opera. Prior to the premiere, Bridge Records will release a studio recording of the two act ‘fairytale’ opera. Also on tap in 2018/2019 are new productions in the USA and Europe of Ruders’s best known opera, The Handmaid’s Tale after the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood.