Chi’s rendition of the Grieg was poised and powerful. The Canadian pianist, trained at Curtis and the New England Conservatory and winner of the 2000 Honens Competition, hasn’t broken into the top-tier concert circuit, but her performance of the Grieg was top-notch, both in its delicacy and its pianistic heroics. Again, Prior was an overt collaborator in this performance, attentively checking with the pianist at every turn, but keeping his focus on the orchestra without any grandstanding.

Read full article here

Classical Voice North America | September 19, 2017

… No such reservations about the concerto in the Saturday concert. Grieg’s much-loved Piano Concerto was the only work in the two evenings that the orchestra had played before, and here it received an affectionate performance notable for the rapport between conductor and the soloist, Edmonton-born (sic) Katherine Chi.

Her approach was just right – not overtly demonstrative, but delicately romantic, and with an emotive but never mannered first-movement cadenza (and it is a long one). Excellent balance, too between soloist and orchestra…

Read full article here

Edmonton Journal | September 17, 2017

Read full article here

Chi brings the house down

KATHERINE Chi made a triumphant return to the stage of our Community Auditorium in the third Masterworks Concert of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra (TBSO).

Her performance of Grieg’s A minor piano concerto was the high light of the concert…

These great piano concertos, because they are familiar to our ears and readily engage our emotions, can seem simple or old fashioned when we hear them. But, matched to the right orchestra and conductor, they become fresh, alive and vibrant.

Add a superior soloist and the music will move you profoundly. That is what Katherine Chi, conductor Leslie Dala and our TBSO musicians did on Thursday evening.

Chi knows this piece inside and out and her attention to both power and delicacy was superb.

But it is the superb performances that all of them, collectively, gave us in the Grieg piano concerto that will be my lasting memory.

Chronicle Journal | January 30, 2016

Read full article here

Chi, without a doubt, deserved all the appreciation. For 35 minutes, the award-winning Canadian soloist kept the crowd riveted during her passionate performance of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concert No. 2 in C Minor, along with the combined orchestra of 80 musicians.

The difficult piece required Chi to deliver delicate melodies, interspersed with bursts of muscular chording. The pianist managed to pull off both extremes with great sensitivity to the composer’s musical mood swings. Her performance was a marvel of precision and artistry, eliciting a brilliant spectrum of emotive sounds from her instrument…

All of the musicians, led by RDSO music director Claude Lapalme, pulled together beautifully to create a stirring listening experience — which well merited the second of the night’s standing ovations.

Red Deer Advocate | May 1, 2014

Read full article here