RICHARD AND JOHN CONTIGUGLIA are identical twins who have collaborated as a piano duo since they were five years old.  Their historic recording of Beethoven's 9 th Symphony, transcribed for two pianos by Franz Liszt, was awarded a Grand Prix by the Liszt Society of Budapest.  The Congigulia's each received their B.A. degrees from Yale, summa cum laude, and received the Master of Music degrees from the Yale Graduate School of Music.  John also studied chemistry while Richard took additional courses in literature and philosophy.  They studied the duo repertoire for four years with the legendary British pianist Dame Myra Hess.

Richard and John were born of Italian immigrant parents in Auburn, NY, the last children, and second set of twins, in a family of seven children.  Without a doubt, the most extraordinary musical event of the twins' youth was their performance in their hometown, when they were 12 years old, of a group of two-piano pieces in the middle of a solo piano recital by the legendary pianist-composer, Percy Grainger. Thus began an association with Grainger which led to a lifelong interest in the man and his music. Following their concert together, Grainger presented the young pianists with many of his two-piano scores.  Throughout their career, Richard and John have programmed and recorded a great deal of Grainger's music, and have released two CDs of Grainger music.

Early in their career, during the Vietnam War years, the Contiguglias were on a tour of the Pacific.  While in Guam, they gave an impromptu Christmas concert at the U.S. Navel Hospital.  After the concert, which included works of Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Hindemith, one young American told them, "Until today, I never realized the power of great music to make one forget the problems of this world.  It's better than LSD."  Richard and John were so moved by this experience that, when they returned to the States, they performed, whenever possible in veterans' hospitals, nursing homes and mental hospitals in the New York area.

Schubert has always been a special love of the Contiguglias.  One of the last directives that Dame Myra Hess gave to them was to "devote your lives to making audiences aware of the Schubert duets."  Throughout their careers the Contiguglias have striven to introduce a wider public to this little-known repertoire.

Richard and John Contiguglia have performed with major orchestras throughout the world, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Pittsburgh, Atlanta, National and Toronto Symphonies, the Boston Pops, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. They have performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

The Congiguglias have created their own recording company, Gemini CD Classics, LLC, to produce and market their own CDs.  To date, their company has released two new Contiguglia CDs, Schubert Piano Duets - the Final Year, and Live from the Holland Liszt Festival, Duos for Two Pianos and Piano, Four-Hands by Franz Liszt.

 

 

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