Praised by the New York Times for her “crystalline performances, gestural expressiveness, and careful attention to color”, and by the Boston Globe for her “effortless incisiveness”, award-winning pianist Katherine Dowling performs across North America and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.
Katherine is familiar to audiences as an artist-in-residence at the Orlando Festival (Netherlands) and a resident fellow of the Avaloch Farm Music Institute (USA); as a multi-year fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, a New Fromm Fellow, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, an International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove artist; through extensive involvement and numerous positions at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; and through multiple national tours under the auspices of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition. She treasures her many collaborative relationships, most especially recital partner Catherine Cosbey (Cavani String Quartet), with whom she is co-director of the Regina Chamber Music Festival. As a soloist, and as a member of the chamber ensemble Gruppo Montebello, Katherine appears on seven critically-acclaimed recordings on the Etcetera label. Her performances have been broadcast on the CBC (Canada), Radio-Canada, BBC (United Kingdom), and National Radio 4 (Netherlands). Upcoming projects include her Vienna recital debut; several tours with violinist Kerry DuWors for Prairie Debut Inc.; a recording of the piano works of Alice Ping-Yee Ho (Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create); and appearing with the Regina Symphony Orchestra in Florence Price’s Piano Concerto.
In addition to her performing activities, Katherine is Assistant Professor of Classical Piano Performance at York University, having formerly served as Assistant Professor of Piano Performance at the University of Regina. She is also on faculty at the duo526 Sonata Seminar and the European Summer Course for Chamber Music (Netherlands). She has served on the jury for the National Finals of the Canadian Music Competition, enjoys adjudicating at both the regional and provincial levels, and teaches masterclasses and workshops across Canada every season. She credits her own teacher, celebrated American pianist Gilbert Kalish, and conductors Henk Guittart and Oliver Knussen, as the major influences in her musical life. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance) degree from Stony Brook University.