Described as "particularly evocative," "fluid and theatrical... the music [that] makes its case with immediacy" (The Arts Fuse) as well as both "assertive and steely," "lovely, subtle writing" (Kozinn, Wall Street Journal) the music by the award-winning composer and pianist Liliya Ugay has been performed in many countries around the globe. Recipient of the 2016 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2017 Horatio Parker Memorial Prize from the Yale School of Music, Ugay has collaborated with the Nashville Symphony, Albany Symphony, American Composers Orchestra New England Philharmonic, Yale Philharmonia, Raleigh Civic Symphony, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Music from Copland House, Molinari Quartet, Antico Moderno, Omnibus ensemble, and Paul Neubauer among others.

Her music has been featured at the Aspen, Norfolk, CULTIVATE, American Composers, New York Electroacoustic Music, June in Buffalo, and Darmstadt New Music festivals, as well as the 52nd Venice Biennale. Liliya received numerous competition prizes as a composer and pianist including the New England Philharmonic Composition Competition (Boston), Edward Grieg International Composition Competition (Oslo), Pre-Art International Composition Competition (Zurich), International piano competition Verfemte Musik (Schwerin, Germany), International competition for young composers under the Union of Composers of Russia/Moscow Conservatory, International competition of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, as well as a National Winner title from the MTNA Young Artist composition competition, to mention a few. For 2017-2018 Ugay was selected as a Resident Composer of the American Lyric Theater.

One of Liliya’s strongest passions is the music of the repressed composers from the Soviet era: she regularly appears with the lecture-recitals on this topic both as a soloist and chamber musician under the guidance from Boris Berman. Last year Liliya organized a concert series "100 years: Silenced Music" marking a century since the Russian Revolution with masterpieces by neglected Soviet composers. In Uzbekistan Ugay graduated from the Uspensky Special Music School for Gifted Children studying piano with Guzal Ardashirova and composition with Polina Medyulyanova and Felix Yanov-Yanovsky. She came to the United States as a Woodruff scholarship recipient to study piano with Alexander Kobrin and composition with Fred Cohen at Columbus State University. She received her Master's of Music degree in composition at the Yale School of Music, and is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate and Teaching Fellow at Yale, where she studies with Aaron Jay Kernis, Hannah Lash, and David Lang.