Press Comments

A Conversation with Katrina Krimsky:

…Bret Schneider (BS): Yeah! What did you find?

Katrina Krimsky (KK): Oh, just my life — a long, full life when I’ve done recordings and performances, and people who have crossed my path.

BS: You’ve done quite a bit. I was really surprised to see the wide breadth of different artists that you have worked with because I didn’t really discover your music until recently, when I came across 1980. I’ve been listening to that album repeatedly, it’s really great. I was surprised, after spending a little bit of time with it and reading about you, that you spent some time with Luc Ferrari and Stockhausen, and I would never have guessed that from listening to the work. It’s kind of rare and unique, it seems.

KK: Well, I went from the classical discipline and sought new adventures, which took me to Europe and to the avant garde. I was fortunate enough to work with Stockhausen, I played his piano pieces and memorized several of them to his delight, and he worked with me on them.  I found little things… like a note that wouldn’t sustain. Then at his home he had an old upright, and I realized he had composed that particular piece on that upright which sustained that note (laughing) and all my efforts on all the other pianos to sustain that note did not work. But we had a lot of fun. It was a delightful time…

– read the full conversation with Bret Schneider, Ceasura Magazine

–  Bret Schneider, Caesura Magazine, “A Conversation with Katrina Krimsky”, October 29, 2024

“…Recorded live in 1980 at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, N.Y., her solo recital is too much fun to have been unheralded for so long … The first track, “Soundscape,” barrels along in Minimalist fashion at first. But as the chordal relationships change, Krimsky incorporates jazz locomotion, gradually and naturally. Halfway through, the pulse drops out, and we’re in a more spare universe of European modernism. It’s a blast to hear that transition — as well as Krimsky’s subsequent move back to harder-driving material and the opening sound world…” – full review on New York Times

–  Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, reviewing the newly released CD 1980

“Keyboard poet: Katrina Krimsky.

The American composer and pianist Katrina Krimsky moves gracefully between different sound worlds. In her own compositions, the enthusiast traces influences from minimal music, jazz, modal improvisation and avant-garde. Krimsky feels at home in both the European and American contemporary music scene and has collaborated with Luc Ferrari, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Jon Hassell, Trevor Watts and in particular Terry Riley…”

– Program maker Mark van de Voort, Concertzender.nl, May 24, 2023

“…A valuable window into the rich, detailed work of an underrated yet pivotal pianist…” – full review on Spectrum Culture

–  Reed Jackson, Spectrum Culture, reviewing the newly released CD 1980

“Katrina Krimsky unleashes a vibrant spectrum of colors from just a few looping melodies. The pianist’s compositions and improvisations build from small, repeated phrases, creating dreamy patterns in their interweaving. Her light, fluid music draws from her experiences performing in eclectic corners of the 20th century avant-garde—notably playing works by electronic trailblazers like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luc Ferrari and minimalist pioneers Terry Riley and La Monte Young. When she turned to composition in the 1980s, her pieces naturally emerged as a hybrid of contemporary styles, finding a sublime depth within every pattern she dreamt up. 1980, an unearthed solo piano recording from a June 1980 concert in Woodstock, New York, introduces the effervescent oscillations that would become Krimsky’s signature, showcasing the artist as she began to solidify her compositional voice…” – full review on Pitchfork

– Vanessa Ague, Pitchfork, reviewing the newly released CD 1980

“It was an excellent idea to film an American concert held by Katrina Krimsky at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock in June 1980. Solo at the piano demonstrates a considerable energetic thickness modulated with mastery, using both the legacy of twentieth-century European composition and the stylistic features of the hypnotic minimalism of Terry Riley and La Monte Young, with whom she had also collaborated. In an evident state of grace, the musician gives an enthralling performance full of light, pauses and pressing rhythms, with even a bit of jazz and without a moment of boredom. Excellent rediscovery.”

– Giuseppe Aiello, Blow Up, Italy, reviewing the newly released CD 1980

“Krimsky has absorbed a staggering volume of musical experience… The listener is seduced by a rapturous lyricism combined with a muscular rhythm determination… And, the music has resonance.”

– Angus Mackinnon, Time Out, London, England

“The composer excellently succeeded in amalgamating the instruments from the different cultures and the result was a meditative, almost magical structure made of sounds.”

– Badener Tagblatt, Switzerland

“Katrina has given a performance sensitively combining minimalism with deep-felt expression.”

– Liberta, Italy

“Remarkable fusion of Classical and New Music with contemporary Jazz presented with brilliant technique and deep sense for tonal nuances.”

– Bruno Spoerri, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Switzerland

“Clear musical expression…, in a world of harmony and ease.”

– Frankfurter Algemeine Magazin, Germany

“A Volcano Erupts… With a stupendous technique, Katrina Krimsky transforms her ideas and their variations into sound on the piano”.

– Badener Tagblatt, Switzerland

“After gorgeous solo readings of five short Villa-Lobos tunes, Krimsky was joined by flute virtuoso Lisa Hansen for technically awesome and emotionally moving duet renditions of works by Copland, Alberto Williams, and Max Lifchitz, as well as Krimsky’s ‘La Plage de Soleil’. …l advise you to find a copy of Krimsky’s Four Moons CD.”

– Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian

“A Rainbow in Curved Air” from LP Katrina Krimsky (Transonic 3008). Krimsky’s reading of the work is excellent, though it’s only seven minutes long. She uses multitracked pianos to create some interesting effects.”

– John Schaefer, NEW SOUNDS: A LISTENERS GUIDE TO NEW MUSIC. Harper & Row Pub. Inc

“Katrina Krimsky followed with a thickly-arpeggio-ed solo piano interpretation of Joe Henderson’s ‘Black Narcissus’. This was my first opportunity to hear Katrina play, and her fierce attack and dynamic use of both hands became a manic conversation—compelling and wildly expressive.”

– Michael Zipkin Jazz Noats BAM 1977

“Her music is an incredible mix of free-form jazz and classical music with elements of Indian and Afro-American music. It’s both composed and improvised, and moves easily from the lyrical to the abstract. After a heavy passage of exploring, she catches you up again with a return to the original theme. Almost as impressive as her music is the way she throws herself into a piece. Eyes closed, sweat turning her hair into ringlets, her whole body is in movement as she plays. She has a way of raising herself slightly from the bench as the feeling hits her. Krimsky’s work is dynamic. You see this dynamism flow through her, through the piano and out into the audience. She is one with her instrument.”

– April McMahon, Plexus Reviews Editor

“Concert pianist gets a surprise from the past: One of her own compositions, performed in 1980, pulled from university archives for publication” – read the full article

– Bill Snyder, San Francisco Senior Beat