UWF Dr. Grier Williams School of Music presents Duo Turgeon

The University of West Florida Dr. Grier Williams School of Music will present pianists Duo Turgeon as part of the Music Hall Artist Series on Monday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rolfs Music Hall at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Building 82, on the Pensacola campus. 

The Duo Turgeon will perform a program to include compositions by Darius Millhaud, Rachmaninov, Dvorak, Witold Lutoslawski as well an original piece by Anne Louise-Turgeon. 

After completing bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in piano performance at the University of Toronto and Yale University, Edward and Anne Turgeon’s musical collaboration began in the mid-1990’s with encouragement from James Anagnoson, Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Peter Serkin. Duo Turgeon went on to win first prizes and additional special prizes at the International Schubert Competition for Piano Duos (Czech Republic, 1995) and Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition (Miami, 1997). These successes led to performances at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and festivals including Chicago International Two Piano Festival, Washington International Piano Festival, in-studio at WGBH Boston, CBC’s Music Around Us Series, Montreal International Two Piano Festival, San Francisco International Music Festival, Festival Duettissimo (Minsk), Festival Duettissimo (Krakow), International Pianisten Forum (Rostock), Steinway Festival at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), Jeunesses Musicales, Steinway Festival at the University of Montana, Festival Miami, Wertheim Hall, New World Center for the Performing Arts (New World Symphony), Friends of Four Hands Detroit, Bader Center for the Performing Arts, Nassau Chamber Music Society (Bahamas), Acadia Concerts, Ford Center for the Performing Arts, performances as headline artist for the North Carolina and Florida Music Teachers Association Conferences, and Music Toronto’s Chamber Music Downtown to name a few. They’ve enjoyed Fulbright and State Department sponsored touring, masterclasses and performances in Europe, tours of Russia and nearby countries since their first, 16-concert Russian tour in 1999. 

Their recordings for Marquis/EMI, ClassXdiscs and Vanguard Classics labels have received 5 out of 5 stars from CBC’s “Sound Advice”, La Scena Musicale and American Record Guide, which described Duo Turgeon’s world premiere recording of Corigliano’s Chiaroscuro as having “hypnotic intensity”. The Turgeons have been heard on radio throughout the world including CBC Arts National, BBC Radio One (documentary on the music and life of Moritz Moszkowski), ABC (Australia), and National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” in the U.S.A.  They are featured in the PBS documentary “Two Pianos – One Passion” and have premiered new works for two pianos by Aaron Copland, John Corigliano, Libby Larsen, Manuel Valera, Timothy Sullivan, Derek Charke and Alex Pauk. Their next composer commission is a two-piano work from Canadian indigenous composer Barbara Assiginaak, to be completed in June 2022, in memory of Chief Shingwaukonse and the children of Shingwauk Residential School.  

After serving on the faculty of several American Universities and Conservatories from 1993 to 2013, the Turgeons returned to Canada to serve as Artists in Residence and faculty members at Algoma University and the Algoma Conservatory of Music. They have served as senior examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music and as judges for regional, national and international piano competitions including the Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition in Miami, Chicago International Duo Competition and Isidor Bajic International Piano Competition in Novi Sad, Serbia, hearing and evaluating more than 12,000 young pianists since 1990. Their 2021 / 2022 schedule includes appearances in Ontario, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Yukon, Montana, Michigan and Florida, new recording projects to include works by Barbara Assiginaak, Valery Gavrilin and Sergei Rachmaninov, ongoing university classroom and applied individualized teaching as well as adjudicating for the Royal Conservatory of Music, for the International Duo Piano Competition in Bialystok, Poland, and in Canada’s capital for the Ottawa Music Festival.

Ticket prices are $18 for adults, $14 for seniors and military, $12 for UWF faculty and staff and non-UWF students and $7 for high school students. UWF students get in free with a valid Nautilus card. Face coverings are not required, however the University, as well as the CDC, highly recommends the use of face coverings indoors. This will allow us to keep our on-campus and off-campus communities safe. For more information or to reserve tickets, please contact the CFPA Box Office at 850.857.6285 or online at uwf.edu/tickets.