Active as a composer and pianist, Amy Williams performs at and has had her music performed at well-known contemporary music festivals and in prestigious venues in her native U.S. and beyond. She is also a noted educator.

Williams was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1969. Her father, Jan, was a percussionist and a member of the faculty at the University of Buffalo, and her mother, Diane, was a Buffalo Philharmonic violist. Williams took up the piano at four and also played the flute as a child. She grew up amidst Buffalo's vital contemporary music scene and personally knew such composers as Elliott Carter, Lukas Foss, and Morton Feldman. As an undergraduate at Bennington College in Vermont, Williams decided on a career in contemporary music as both composer and performer. She went on to the University of Buffalo for a master's degree, studying with Yvar Mikhashoff and a Ph.D. in composition; her principal teachers in that program were David Felder, Charles Wuorinen, and Nils Vigeland. While a graduate student in Buffalo, Williams and another student, Helena Bugallo, formed the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, which remained active as of the early 2020s. Williams joined the faculty at Bennington in 1998, moved on to Northwestern University in 2000, and since 2005 has taught at the University of Pittsburgh. She won a Fulbright Scholarship, which she used to spend a year at the University of Cork in Ireland, in 2017-2018.

Some 20 of Williams' compositions have been recorded, many by the composer herself or by the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo. Among the most notable are a series of chamber works for various instrument combinations called Cineshape, inspired by specific films. Composed in the 2000s decade, these were recorded several times in the 2010s and were performed in 2016 by the JACK Quartet, flutist Lindsey Goodman, and percussionist Scott Christian, accompanied by videos by Aaron Henderson. Williams's compositions have been heard at many festivals, including Ars Musica in Belgium, Gaudeamus Music Week in the Netherlands, and Dresden New Music Days in Germany. They have been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and pianist Ursula Oppens, among other leading ensembles and soloists. In 2018, the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo released its recording of the two-piano version of Stravinsky's Petrushka on the Wergo label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi