Amy Williams, professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Music, is among four composers to receive a 2024 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (AAAL). The $10,000 prize acknowledges artists who have arrived at their own voice. Williams will also receive an additional $10,000 grant to fund a recording of her work, which will also be presented during a spring concert at the AAAL library.
Williams describes herself as both a composer and a new music pianist, saying "The two are inseparable in my artistic objectives. I often write pieces with specific performers in mind, exploiting their individual technical abilities and qualities. My sound arises from a modernist aesthetic but also benefits from a polystylistic approach that is distinctly American."
She is a member of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, an ensemble dedicated to giving dynamic performances of challenging and under-performed repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries. The Duo’s recordings, mostly with the German label Wergo, include the world premiere recordings of Stravinsky’s arrangements of his Septet and Movements (2007), numerous Nancarrow works (2004 and 2011), pieces by Erik Oña (2007), and Edgard Varèse’s recently discovered arrangement for two pianos, eight hands of his monumental Amériques.