UW Department of Music to Feature Guest Pianists April 25

Guest pianists Alejandro Cremaschi and Jéssica Pacheco-Hjelmstad will be featured in a University of Wyoming Department of Music recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 25, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts recital hall.

“Sound, Not Silence: Piano Duets by Women Composers from the Americas” is a program dedicated to piano duets (one piano, four hands) composed by women from the Americas. The event is free and open to the public.

Over the last five years, Cremaschi and Pacheco-Hjelmstad’s collaborative work has focused on introducing diverse musical voices from the Americas, including conference presentations on piano duets by South American composers.

The lecture-recital aims to introduce listeners to unfamiliar pieces by this underrepresented group of composers; to encourage teachers to include the music in their teaching; and to inspire other pianists to perform this repertoire.

The lecture portion of the concert will introduce information about the composers, their styles and techniques; tonal writing and contemporary idioms as well as pedagogical reflections of the works performed; and information about how to obtain the pieces.

Featured composers will be African American musicians Eleanor Alberga and Jacqueline Hairston; Susana Anton, from Argentina; Brazil’s Chiquinha Gonzaga; UW Department of Music Professor Anne Guzzo; American composer Libby Larsen; and Rocio Sanz, from Costa Rica. Their diverse pieces show a variety of styles and techniques, tonal writing and contemporary idioms.

Cremaschi is a professor of piano at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where he teaches piano pedagogy and applied piano and coordinates the class piano area. He also is an active solo performer and chamber pianist.

Pacheco-Hjelmstad is an active pianist, chamber music collaborator, choir accompanist, piano teacher, lecturer and adjudicator. She teaches private piano lessons and chamber music in northern Colorado. She also is the pianist and recital coordinator at the Colorado Kodály Institute at Colorado State University.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.