Guest Pianists: Gulimina Mahamuti & George Lopez

Gulimina Mahamuti & George Lopez

Since 2018 Duo Mundi George & Guli has thrilled audiences around the country with their innovative, diverse, and intimate programming style. They have explored music for both one piano four-hands and two piano four-hands in the standard and contemporary classics as well as commissioning regional and internationally underrepresented composers for new works to expand the duo repertoire.

They have been lauded as “…breathing the same artistic air…” with an intimacy of communication that captivates audiences of every generation. Their beautifully synchronized performance styles engage both the eye and the ear in a dance of emotions that have enthralled the public since their inception.

Duo Mundi George & Guli gave a standing-room-only performance of Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story at their debut concert in Bowdoin College’s Studzinski Hall for the centenary of his birth and recently performed on tour in the Midwest for the Western Reserve MTA in Columbus and the University of Akron in Ohio. Their upcoming tour schedule for 2022-2023 includes concerts in Boston, Kansas, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Mexico, and Portugal.

Pianist George Lopez, Bowdoin College's Robert Beckwith Artist in Residence, has been a dedicated and dynamic performer, educator, and lecturer for 30 years. Known in Europe, South America and the US for his "...kaleidoscopic colors and clarity of conception..." (LA Times) in the standard repertoire as well as being a champion of newly written works, Mr. Lopez is also comfortable in styles of music ranging from jazz, ragtime to more contemporary styles of improvisation. His concert seasons have included tours of New England and New York, the Bay Area, Seattle, New Orleans, Boulder, Colorado, Vermont, Massachusetts and Mexico, with concerts in France, Holland, Switzerland and Italy. He was invited to Cuba just before the embargo was lifted to give masterclasses and concerts as a member of
the Aries Trio. Mr. Lopez initiated his "Music in the Museum" series at Bowdoin College which consistently sells out to audiences who enjoy his creative and engaging lecture recitals on the relationship of music to art and ideas. He has taken up the baton and built up the all-student Bowdoin College Orchestra which performs full symphonic programs each semester. He resides in Brunswick, Maine.

The first Uyghur from China to receive a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance in the U.S., Gulimina Mahamuti debuted major works at Carnegie Hall and performed internationally in Montreal, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Budapest (at the invitation of the Turkish Ambassador), and across the U.S. and China, broadcasting on these nations’ radio and TV programs. She performed piano concerti with the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra, Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, and Harbin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and was featured on the radio in San Francisco, Queens College/CUNY podcast, China Touch Radio, and Istanbul Technical University Radio. With decades of teaching experience before moving to Maine in May of 2018, Dr. Mahamuti was a part-time Assistant Professor of Piano at Ohio Wesleyan University and previously taught at Capital University, as GTA at both UMKC and Pittsburg State University, and was on faculty at the School of Music of Northwest University for Nationalities in China. Dr. Mahamuti presented at the MTNA and NCKP was published on multiple occasions at Clavier Companion, and released her CD, Xinjiang Piano Music from Western China. Among her many honors and awards was a Resolution of Congratulations by the Ohio House of Representatives for her professional achievements in teaching. Dr. Mahamuti is the Immediate Past President of the MaineMTA and serves on the national committee of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at MTNA.