“…the virtuosity was nothing short of jaw-dropping…” —The Miami Herald

Music on the Edge concludes its 2011–12 season with the internationally renowned and critically acclaimed Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo performing a tribute concert to Hungarian composer György Kurtág. The duo comprises pianist Helena Bugallo and composer/ pianist Amy Williams, who is also a Pitt faculty composer. The piano four-hands Kurtág tribute will feature transcriptions and excerpts from Kurtág’s Jatékók (Games), and his Suite (1952) interspersed with works by György Ligeti (Sonatina), Amy Williams (Abstracted Art I and II), and Conlon Nancarrow (Nine Little Pieces; Studies for Player Piano #6, #4, #18, #15).

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 perform cutting-edge new works and masterpieces of the twentieth century for piano four-hands and two pianos, including works by Cage, Debussy, Feldman, Kagel, Kurtág, Ligeti, Nancarrow, Sciarrino, Stockhausen, Stravinsky and Wolpe. The choice of Kurtág’s works as the focal point of this concert is a natural fit for Bugallo and Williams because of Kurtág’s intimate and profound connection to the medium of the piano duo.  His own performances with his wife, pianist Marta Kurtág, have led to the creation of over 100 pieces for piano, four-hands and two pianos. Most of these are either original miniatures or highly imaginative transcriptions of the music of Machaut, Purcell, Frescobaldi, Lasso, Schütz and J.S. Bach. This Kurtag tribute concert also provides a preview of an all-Kurtág CD the Bugallo-Williams Duo will release on the Wergo label in 2013.

Tickets are available in advance through ProArtsTickets. General admission is $15; students and seniors are $10. Visit www.proartstickets.org or call 412-394-3353. At the door: general admission is $20; students and seniors are $15. Pitt students are admitted free with valid ID.