Biography: Katherine Dowling

Dec. 15, 2025

Praised by the New York Times for her “crystalline performances, gestural expressiveness, and careful attention to colour”, and by the Boston Globe for her “effortless incisiveness”, award-winning “tour-de-force pianist” (OpusKlassiek) Katherine Dowling performs across the Americas and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. She strives to create musical experiences that are otherworldly and transportive, while also deeply human.

Katherine is familiar to audiences through regular appearances at Canada’s major music festivals and concert series, including Ottawa Chamberfest and Stratford Summer Music, as well as international debuts in Vienna, The Hague, and Rio de Janeiro, touching listeners with her dedication to repertoire both old and new. She has premiered over one hundred new works, and has enjoyed close associations with the Orlando Festival, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Tanglewood Music Centre, IMS Prussia Cove, Britten-Pears Young Artist Prorgamme, and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

As a soloist, and as a member of the chamber ensemble Gruppo Montebello, Katherine appears on nine critically-acclaimed recordings on the Etcetera label, and her solo album “Awake and Dreaming: Piano Music of Alice Ping-Yee Ho”, praised as “virtuosic and compelling” (The WholeNote), appears on the Leaf Music label. Her performances have been broadcast on the BBC, National Radio 4 (Holland), Radio Canada, and the CBC.

Katherine treasures her collaborative relationships, and is grateful to perform with an international array of celebrated artists. She credits her teacher Gilbert Kalish as the major influence in her musical life.