LIZ AMES is in great demand as a collaborative pianist deeply passionate about performing and working with instrumentalists, vocalists, and composers.
Recent international appearances include performances in Belgium, England, Spain, the World Saxophone Congresses in St. Andrews (Scotland) and Strasbourg (France), the 2008 Contemporary Music Festival in Lima (Peru), and at the 2011 & 2016 International Double Reed Society Conferences. Liz has served as piano coordinator and staff pianist for the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conferences in Tempe, AZ, Urbana-Champaign, IL, and Lubbock,TX; and has been the United States Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium staff pianist since 2016.
While specializing in saxophone literature, Liz continues to pursue projects with a wide variety of instrumentalists and vocalists. She curated a series of concerts during the 2010-2011 season featuring her performances of the entire collection of 114 Songs by Charles Ives with eight singers in Phoenix, Arizona. Alongside her work as a performer, Dr. Ames is devoted to creating unique and accessible piano reductions using extended techniques. She has generated several published reductions including Henry Brant’s Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra, Peter Schickele’s Concerto for Simply Grand Piano, and multiple concertos and oratorios by Steven Bryant, Joel Puckett, Don Grantham, David Biedenbender, and John Mackey. Her most recent undertaking is the reduction of Wynton Marsalis’s Tuba Concerto to be performed on recital tours with renowned tubist and dedicatee, Carol Jantsch.
Ames completed her doctorate in collaborative piano at the Herberger Institute School of Music at Arizona State University and is currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she serves on the collaborative piano staff at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Additionally, she serves as collaborative pianist for workshops and summer programs, including the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the MPulse Institutes at the University of Michigan, and the Orford Music Academy (Quebec, Canada).
She performs with musicians throughout the Midwest, including flutist Amy Porter, tubist David Zerkel, bassoonist Jeffrey Lyman, and her duo partner, three-time GRAMMY-winning saxophonist, Timothy McAllister. Additionally, she will appear as soloist in Stravinsky’s Piano Concerto with the Grand Rapids Symphony during their ’23-‘24 Season, and again with the orchestra in Francis Poulenc’s “Aubade” alongside the Grand Rapids Ballet in October 2024.
The McAllister/Ames duo released two, critically-acclaimed albums during 2020, including the collected works of British composer Andy Scott for NAXOS Records, as well as a disc of iconic saxophone repertoire by Albright, Denisov, Stucky, Mantovani and Augusta Read Thomas for the XAS Records (Symphonic) label. Their third album, Project Encore Vol.1, was released in September 2022 on Neuma Records featuring music by fourteen diverse composers from across the globe. The duo’s follow-up Project Encore, Vol.2 and an anthology of the complete works for saxophone and piano by award-winning composer Vincent Ho will be due out in the 2024-2025 season.
Pictures: Nick Zoulek