Critically acclaimed modern and baroque violinist Nurit Pacht was a top prize winner in the Irving Klein International Music Competition in California, the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Switzerland and the Kingsville International Music Competition in Texas.
As a soloist she was featured in major world events. In 1999, for the European conference in Brussels for the inauguration of the new currency, the Euro, she performed Stravinsky “A Soldier’s Tale” and Chausson’s Concerto for violin and piano with string quartet. She played a multi-city recital tour in the former Yugoslavia’s during the 1996 cease-fire under the auspices of the European Commission and United Nations. For the 50th year celebration of the state of Israel, in 1998, she performed at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In 2015, she performed for Pope Francis on his visit to New York and gave a State Department funded recital tour of Ukraine, also giving masterclasses at local conservatories.
Nurit spent several years in the early 2000’s touring the United States and Europe as the soloist in "Relative Light,” a theatrical piece featuring John Cage’s virtuoso solo violin music “Freeman Etude” directed by Robert Wilson. In collaboration with Tony Award winning choreographer Bill T. Jones and, additionally, with his dance company, she toured on three continents playing the solo violin works of J.S. Bach.
Playing new music is an integral part of Nurit’s artistic life. To raise funds for Classical Action, an organization that provides financial assistance to performing artists with AIDS, she performed a recital of music by Philip Glass with the composer at the piano. They reunited again to perform at Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur with with Gambian composer Foday Musa Suso. She premiered dozens of new works including some dedicated to her like Noam Sherif’s Violin Concerto "Dibrot", which she performed with the Israeli Contemporary Players. In celebration of the 80th birthday of Pierre Boulez, the dominant figure of avant-garde music, Nurit - as the artistic director of the Alliance Players - explored more than 50 years of his compositions in a concert at New York’s Alliance Francaise, with the composer introducing each work. She has collaborated with American Modern Ensemble and counter)induction. She has worked closely with many of today's celebrated composers and enjoys spending part of her summers at Weekend of Chamber Music in the Catskills, NY where she has worked closely with Joan Tower, Shulamit Ran, Andrew Waggoner, John Harbison and John Corigliano.
In 2012, Nurit earned a master’s degree in historical performance from the Juilliard School. As concertmaster, Nurit led NY Baroque Inc, Music of the Baroque (in Chicago) and plays concertos annually with Newburyport Chamber Music Festival’s Winter Baroque. She has learned from and collaborated with the stars and scholars of the early music world including Christopher Hogwood, Jordi Savall, William Christie and Monica Huggett. Nurit was invited to tour as soloist with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Young Israel Philharmonic - throughout China - and the Houston Symphony. She performed as a guest soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Des Moines Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, most of the major orchestras in Romania, the National Symphony in Columbia, Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra (in Poland) and Filarmonica di Roma (in Italy). She has performed recitals and chamber music at the festivals of Santa Fe, Monadnock, Sienna, Mecklenberg, and at Ravinia's Rising Stars Series.
With her husband, guitarist and composer Rami Vamos, she regularly performs in Lincoln Center’s Passport to the Arts programs geared towards audiences with disabilities and for Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society’s CMS Kids. Nurit is also a frequent musical guest on Rami’s programs featuring his original character, Wolfgang Amadeus Schmutzinberry, designed to teach and entertain young audiences with the classics. Together, Nurit and Rami have composed and performed a series of violin and guitar duets dedicated to their mentors and teachers.
As a violin teacher, Nurit keeps a class of about twelve violinists in New York City - through the Lucy Moses School’s Young Artist Program, the Special Music School and privately - that often win performance opportunities in NYC’s prestigious venues, are awarded generous scholarships to top conservatories and have prized in international competitions. She teaches at Chautauqua’s Institute of Music in the summers with her mother-in-law, the renown violin pedagogue Almita Vamos. During the pandemic, Nurit’s string quartet - the Bayberry String Quartet - coached more than 30 student and professional ensembles on-line using a method they created to foster chamber music partnerships and build musical skills in a socially interactive way. In the Spring of 2022, Nurit joined the faculty of Mount Holyoke College as a visiting professor.
In 2017, Toccata Classics released her recording of Ernst Krenek’s Concerto for Violin and Piano with the pianist Mikhail Korzhev and the English Symphony Orchestra. She can also be heard on the same label in recordings with the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival. Her live recital recording with pianist Konstantin Lifschitz from London's Wigmore Hall in 2002 was released by Nimbus Records.