Susan Narucki

Artistic director

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 University of California at San Diego in 2008, she has been deeply 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 /Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, UC MEXUS, Creative Capital Foundation, New Music USA and multiple awards from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ms. Narucki commissioned and produced Inheritance, a chamber opera written by Grawmeyer Award winning composer Lei Liang, addressing gun violence in America. Co-presented by ARTPower and the Department of Music at UC San Diego, Inheritance had its premiere performances in October, 2018.  

Ms. Narucki also commissioned and produced Cuatro Corridos (2013), the critically acclaimed chamber opera addressing trafficking of women across the U.S.- Mexico border. With libretto by internationally renowned Mexican author Jorge Volpi, and music by Hebert Vazquez, Arlene Sierra, Lei Liang and Hilda Paredes, the opera has been performed throughout the United States and Mexico and has had multiple broadcasts on Canal 22, Mexico's art and culture television network. Ms. Narucki’s recording of Cuatro Corridos on Bridge Records earned a 2017 Latin Grammy Nomination and was a Critic's Choice of both Opera News and Gramophone.   

A dedicated mentor to the next generation of singers, Ms. Narucki founded kallisti at UC San Diego in 2009. She has had residencies at SONGFEST, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Aichi University of the Arts, the Longy School of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory.  Ms. Narucki served as the inaugural Director of Arts and Community Engagement, an initiative of the Division of Arts and Humanities at UC San Diego

In November of 2019, Ms. Narucki was nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Recording for The Edge of Silence: Vocal Chamber Music of György Kurtág (AVIE Records). The recording was included in the New York Times Best Classical Tracks of 2019 and was named a Critic’s Choice of Opera News.

Kyle Adam Blair

Accompanist/repetiteur
 

Lyricism, complexity, and dissonance characterize the musical interests of pianist Kyle Adam Blair. His artistic focuses include the creation of new musical works in collaboration with living composers, as well as the American art music repertory post-1900, particularly the music of Stuart Saunders Smith, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, and Charles Ives.

Blair’s curiosities regarding text and theatre spark frequent collaborations with singers, actors, and dancers. Most recently, he has worked closely with Grammy-winning soprano Susan Narucki as the vocal coach and pianist for kallisti, and as repetiteur for operatic premieres of Lei Liang’s Inheritance and Stephen Lewis’s Noon at Dusk. Blair also currently serves as singing coach and lecturer in UCSD’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

Blair can be heard on New World Records and Edgetone Records. He received his D.M.A. in Contemporary Music Performance in 2018 from the University of California, San Diego, under the mentorship of Aleck Karis.