A fervent advocate for new music and the community that surrounds and supports it, Amy Wurtz is a vibrant performer, composer, and curator of new music.Amy developed a program for Women's History Month, performing 31 pieces on each day of March, to celebrate women composers. Her 2024 album, Touching Rapture, with the Wurtz-Berger Duo and supported by Chicago's DCASE IAP grant, features Amy’s work Chambers alongside works by 3 other American women composers. Originally from California, Amy has lived and worked in the Bay Area, Southern California, throughout the Midwest, South America and Europe. In addition to composing and curation, she is in demand as a solo pianist, chamber and choral musician, teacher, and collaborative pianist. She has won support from the Illinois Arts Council, New Music Chicago, and Ravinia's Breaking Barriers Festival.
Amy performs regularly with the Wurtz-Berger Duo, Access Contemporary Music, the Calumet Chamber Musicians, and as former President of New Music Chicago and current Curatorial Director of the Ear Taxi Festival, is an active force in the new music community. She curates New Music at the Green Mill and the Impromptu Fest, and performs regularly at the Thirsty Ears Festival and the Sound of Silent Film Festival in Chicago. She conducts and performs with the Sounds Good and Good Memories choirs where she works with singers age 55 and better who experience memory loss.
