2025 Composers-in-Residence

Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri (b. 1974) is a Greek-born composer and sound artist working in Ithaca, New York and Zurich Switzerland. Papalexandri’s works interweave the borderlines of sound art, musical composition, visual objects and performance and explore the factors that link these art forms. The world of sound and the visual appearance of her works are in continuous interaction, while being uncompromisingly precise, pure and economical in their means.

Papalexandri’s music has been commissioned and premiered worldwide by ensembles and soloists such as Neue Vocalsolisten, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble SurPlus, Ensemble Mosaik, Chamber Curious Players, Yarn / Wire, Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble Scenatet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Wet Ink Ensemble, Quartet New Generation, Orkest de Volharding, the London Improvisers Orchestra, the Hellenic Ensemble of Contemporary Music, Ensemble dissonArt, Hidden Mother, Ensemble This/Ensemble That, Karin Hellqvist, Ross Karre, Steven Schick, Justin Dehart, Rhodri Davies, Ernst Surberg, Erik Drescher, Séverine Ballon amongst others, and featured in festivals such as MaerzMusik Festival, Berlin; the ISCM World Music Days, Stuttgart; Ultrashall, Berlin; ZKM, Karlsruhe; impuls, Graz; De Bijloke, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Dialogue Festival, Salzburg; Carlsbad Music Festival, Los Angeles; ECLAT Festival, Stuttgart; SPOR Festival, Aarhus; Audiograft Festival, Oxford; Concertgebouw Brugge; Athens Concert Hall; Tzlil Meudcan Festival, Tel Avil; Darmstadt; Gaudeamus Festival, Amsterdam; Issue Project Room, New York; Wien Modern and MATA New York.From 1999 to 2009 she was an active improviser (moving objects) performing with Eddie Prevost, Simon Vincent, Rob Wannamaker, John Lely, Sebastian Lexer, Seymour Wright, Steve Beresford and others.

The recipient of the Humboldt-University of Berlin: Cluster of Excellence International Fellowship (2015), Papalexandri has been honored by numerous awards, residencies and grants, including the Ernst Von Siemens Foundation Commission (2016), the Berlin Senate Sound Art Grant (2016), the Swedish Arts Council Composition Grant (2016 & 2015), the Berlin Senate Composition Grant (2011), the International IMPULS Composition Award (2009), a residency at the Electronic Music Studios, Sweden (2008), the Dan David Prize for Contemporary Music (2007), the Darmstadt Stipendienpreis (2006), the Erickson Composition Fellowship (2004), the Kurt Weill Composition Fellowship, the Gluck Art Fellowship (2004) and a residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (2011-2012). In 2017 Papalexandri was a sound artist in residence at the International House of Artists Villa Corcodia Bamberg Germany and at St John's College, University of Oxford. Papalexandri has been nominated for a 2019 residency at the International Instrument Inventor Foundation, the Hague, Holland.

Called “thrilling” by the Guardian, and “arrestingly beautiful” by the New Yorker, Donnacha Dennehy’s music has featured in festivals and venues such as the Edinburgh International Festival; Carnegie Hall, New York; Barbican, London; Muziekgebouw , Amsterdam; Wigmore Hall, London; Royal Opera House, London; BAM, New York; St. Ann’s Warehouse; Tanglewood Festival; Holland Festival; Kennedy Center; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival; Dublin Theatre Festival; ISCM World Music Days; Bang On A Can; Ultima Festival, Oslo; Musica Viva, Lisbon; Saarbrucken Festival; and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival.

His music has been premiered and commissioned by groups and soloists including Alarm Will Sound, Augustin Hadelich, Bang On A Can, Contact, Crash Ensemble, Dawn Upshaw, Doric String Quartet (Carnegie/Wigmore co-commission), Fidelio Trio, Joanna MacGregor, Kronos Quartet, Icebreaker, Nadia Sirota, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Oregon Symphony, Orkest de Volharding, Percussion Group of the Hague, philharmonie zuidnederland, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, So Percussion (Carnegie/Cork Opera House co-commission), St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Third Coast Percussion, Ulster Orchestra (BBC), and United Instruments of Lucilin (Luxembourg). Collaborations include pieces with the writers Colm Tóibín (The Dark Places), the director Tom Creed (The Hunger, stage version) and Enda Walsh (a trilogy of operas).

Returning to Ireland after studies abroad, principally at the University of Illinois, Dennehy founded Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s now-renowned new music group, in 1997. Alongside the singers Dawn Upshaw and Iarla O’Lionáird, Crash Ensemble features on the debut 2011 Nonesuch release of Dennehy’s music, entitled Grá agus Bás. Other releases include a second portrait disc by Nonesuch (The Hunger, 2019), a number by NMC Records in London, Bedroom Community in Reykjavik and New Amsterdam and Cantaloupe in New York.

Dennehy’s single-movement orchestral piece Crane was ‘recommended’ by the International Rostrum of Composers (2010). In 2017, he won the FEDORA-Generali Prize for Opera (Salzburg/Paris), and in 2021 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. At present, he is writing a large-scale work for Alarm WIll Sound, Land of Winter, to be premiered at the Beethovenfest in Germany in September 2022. Dennehy now lives in America and is a professor at Princeton University. His music is published by G. Schirmer in New York.

2025 Artists-in-Residence

Hailed as “beyond brilliant” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “simply stunning” (Gramophone), the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo has been presenting innovative programs of contemporary music around the world since 1995. Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams perform cutting-edge new works and masterpieces of the 20th century for piano four-hands and two pianos. They have premiered dozens of works, many of which were written for the Duo, and they have worked directly with such renowned composers as David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Lukas Foss, Tania León, Bernard Rands, Carola Bauckholt, Peter Eötvös, and Steve Reich. They also collaborate with composers who explore new approaches to the piano through multimedia applications, electronics, and extended techniques. They frequently perform with additional players in works for multiple keyboards, chamber works for duo piano and instruments, and concertos.

As part of their mission to expand the repertoire for piano duet, the Duo undertook an extensive transcription project of the Studies for Player Piano by Conlon Nancarrow. This resulted in their critically acclaimed debut recording of Nancarrow's works for piano duet and solo piano (Wergo, 2004). Their subsequent CD “Stravinsky in Black and White” (Wergo, 2007) includes the composer’s own arrangements for piano duet and two pianos, two of which are world premiere recordings. It was named one of the “Essential Stravinsky Recordings” by Gramophone. Wergo will release a second volume of Stravinsky transcriptions in early 2018. The Duo has also recorded works by Kurtág, Varèse, Feldman, Ginastera, Liderman, Williams, Oña, and Bartók.

The Duo was formed in 1995, when Williams and Bugallo were graduate students at the University at Buffalo. They soon became regular performers at the June In Buffalo Festival, where they worked directly with numerous emerging and established composers. They began their Nancarrow project shortly thereafter, leading to their first performances in Europe (at the Aarhus Festival in Denmark in 1998) and South America (at the Ciclo de conciertos de música contemporánea in Buenos Aires in 2000). They were fellows at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany in 2000 and 2001. Other feature appearances include Miller Theatre, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Ojai Festival, CAL Performances, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Muziekgebouw aan't IJ in Amsterdam, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, MusikTriennale Köln, Festival Attacca in Stuttgart, Institut Hongrois in Paris, and Tampere Biennale in Finland. Avid proponents of contemporary music, they frequently present master classes and lecture-demonstrations at colleges and universities in the Americas and Europe.

In addition to the Duo, Amy Williams is a composer, festival organizer and professor of composition/theory at the University of Pittsburgh. Helena Bugallo is a piano teacher at the Musik Akademie Basel and a musicologist primarily researching the music of Conlon Nancarrow.