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Liliya Ugay



Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and now based in the United States, Liliya Ugay is a composer and pianist whose music balances bold contemporary expression with deep roots in storytelling, memory, and identity. Her works often weave together strands of her Central Asian heritage, her experience as an immigrant, and her fascination with texture and timbre.

Ugay is also a pianist herself, which shines through in the way she writes for the instrument: she understands both its power and its fragility, its percussive bite and its capacity for intimate song.

Among her piano works, Scenes from the Motherhood stands out as an extraordinary cycle. Written after Ugay became a mother and inspired by Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, it captures the intensity, tenderness, exhaustion, and joy of early parenthood. Each miniature feels like a snapshot, sometimes fragile and lyrical, other times restless and raw. There’s humor, vulnerability, and even a touch of chaos, reflecting the emotional landscape of motherhood in all its contradictions.



For pianists, the piece demands both sensitivity and courage: one moment you’re shaping delicate lullaby-like lines, the next you’re navigating jagged rhythms that break any sense of calm. It isn’t about virtuosity for its own sake, it’s about honesty.

Ugay’s music has been performed worldwide, at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, and Aspen, and she has received commissions from major ensembles including the American Composers Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and JACK Quartet. Yet works like Scenes from the Motherhood remind us that her most powerful statements can come through the intimate voice of the piano.


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