Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy And Sara Hamann.
Hi Amy and Sara, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We began piano lessons at the Yamaha School of Music when we were four and five years old. Because we were so close in age, our teacher introduced us to duet playing almost immediately. Our very first recital featured a performance of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, an early experience that established collaboration as the foundation of our musical lives.
Around this same time, we began to follow the career of the Labèque Sisters. Born in France, Katia and Marielle Labèque were redefining what it meant to be a piano duo, releasing influential two-piano and duet recordings and frequently appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. When they performed at the Ordway in St. Paul as part of The Schubert Club’s International Artist Series, the late Bruce Carlson—then president of The Schubert Club—made sure we had the opportunity to meet them backstage. For two young pianists, meeting our sister-duo role models was unforgettable. Their warmth, generosity, and encouragement made the idea of a shared concert career feel not only possible, but deeply inspiring.
As high school students, our musical partnership continued to develop in more public ways. We won the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies Concerto Competition and performed Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. We went on to pursue piano performance studies at the University of Minnesota and Hamline University’s International Piano Institute, where we studied with Alexander Braginsky.
Those years proved to be formative in every sense. Under Alex’s guidance, our playing matured artistically and technically, and our understanding of music deepened. To this day, we think of him not only as our most important mentor, but also as a loving father figure. He knew exactly when to push and when to support, helping us refine our sound, strengthen our partnership, and develop the confidence needed to step onto international stages. It was during this period that we began competing and performing at an international level, solidifying the direction that had been forming since our childhood.
We are honored to be the first American piano duo to win the Absolute First Prize at the Fryderyk Chopin Concorso Pianistico Internazionale in Rome, Italy, as well as First Prize at the International Grieg Competition in Oslo, Norway. We are also First Prize winners of the National Federation of Music Ellis Competition for Duo-Pianists. Our artistic work has been recognized with a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Performing Musicians, administered by the MacPhail Center for Music, which enabled us to embark on our dream recording project.
That project—recording Beethoven’s Complete Piano Duets—became a true labor of love. We recorded the cycle twice: once on a modern Yamaha concert grand and again on period-accurate fortepianos from The Schubert Club’s collection. Naxos released these first-of-their-kind comparative recordings as a double-disc set, bringing new perspective to Beethoven’s duet repertoire and to historically informed performance practice.
Our broad repertoire and versatility on both modern and period instruments have led to engagements as featured artists around the world with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra at the Chautauqua Institution, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, the Oslo International Music Festival, the Québec International Duo Piano Festival, and the Reding-Piette Two-Piano Festival in Switzerland. As Minnesota artists, a career highlight was performing with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra. Our performances are frequently broadcast on national and international television and radio, including APM’s Performance Today and NPR’s Studio 360.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We started our teaching business to put ourselves through music school and quickly realized that balancing our time was key, especially once we were traveling internationally for competitions and concerts. The amount of preparation required to be ready for performances is immense and maintaining our commitment to our students and being fully present for them is a balancing act. At this point, it’s safe to say that we’re exceptional at scheduling! While we are no longer competing, we continue to balance our concert and recording career with our commitment to share our love of music with the next generation through teaching. Alongside our professional work, we are also full-time caregivers for our sister, who has special needs.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are a sister piano duo specializing in classical repertoire composed for two pianos and piano duet (one piano, four hands). In addition to our performing career, we run a private teaching studio built around a unique A/B scheduling system that allows us to alternate weekly, giving students the benefit of working with both of us while enabling us to teach twice as many students as we could individually. Our proudest artistic accomplishment is our Beethoven recording, and we are especially distinctive as a duo for performing on both modern and period instruments. Also, as sisters, we share an almost telepathic musical connection that results in an exceptionally tight ensemble—praised by the Rochester Post-Bulletin: “Many times a single very fast phrase would race from one keyboard to the other so seamlessly that it was hard to tell which instrument was playing.”
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Continuing with her love of education, Amy volunteers her free time at The National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN where she is a Program Presenter and eagle handler. Sara, continuing with her love of lifelong learning, enjoys gardening and practicing yoga and barre.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hamannsisters.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063564453500
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-and-sara-hamann-74450061/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HamannSisters
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1i0YpB1inRzUyfsCPWtG2J
- Other: https://grandpianorecords.com/Album/AlbumDetails/GP619-20
