Impossible Music: The Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | Free

The Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo—Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams ‘90—perform contemporary works for solo piano, piano four-hands and two pianos that challenge the notion of what is possible to play. Composers include Conlon Nancarrow, Steve Reich, György Ligeti, and Amy Williams.

About the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo

The Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo has been presenting innovative programs of contemporary music throughout North America and Europe since 1995. Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams (Bennington College, Class of 1990) have premiered dozens of works, many of which were written especially for the Duo, and they have worked directly with such renowned composers as David Lang, Tania Léon, Louis Andriessen, Lukas Foss, Steve Reich, Marcos Balter, Bernard Rands, Betsy Jolas, and Kevin Volans.

The Duo has been featured at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ (Amsterdam), Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Miller Theatre, Le Poisson Rouge and Symphony Space (New York City), CAL Performances (Berkeley), Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik (Witten), and Ojai Festival (California), to name a few. As part of their mission to expand the repertoire for piano duet, the Duo has undertaken an extensive transcription project of the Studies for Player Piano by Conlon Nancarrow. This resulted in a critically acclaimed recording of Nancarrow’s music for piano duet and solo piano, released by Wergo in 2004. They have also recorded the music of Jorge Liderman, Erik Oña, Feldman/Varèse, Ginastera (Neos, 2010), Amy Williams, Kurtág, Bartok, and Stravinsky.

Image credit: Heike Liss