The University of Wyoming Department of Music presents “Sound Not Silence: Piano Duets by Women Composers from the Americas,” Monday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts Recital Hall.

The recital is free and the public is cordially invited.

The recital features guest pianists Jéssica Pacheco-Hjelmstad and Alejandro Cremaschi performing a program fully dedicated to piano duets (one piano, four-hand) composed by women from the Americas.

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

This lecture-recital aims to introduce listeners to unfamiliar pieces by this underrepresented group of composers, to encourage teachers to include this music in their teaching, and to inspire other pianists to perform this repertoire. The lecture portion will introduce information about the composers and 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 include African-American musicians Eleanor Alberga and Jacqueline Hairston, Rocio Sanz (Costa Rica), Susana Anton (Argentina), Chiquinha Gonzaga (Brazil), Anne Guzzo (US), and Libby Larsen (US). Their pieces show a rich variety of styles and techniques, tonal writing and contemporary idioms.

Pacheco-Hjelmstad is an active pianist, chamber music collaborator, choir accompanist, piano teacher, presenter/lecturer, and adjudicator. She teaches private piano lessons and chamber music in northern Colorado, and is the Colorado Kodaly Institute pianist and recital coordinator at CSU.

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