BIOGRAPHY
Noted for “an extraordinary range of colour” (Montreal Gazette), and “poetic brilliance” (Toronto Star), Canadian pianist Francine Kay has performed extensively in Europe, North America, and Asia, at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center, Salle Gaveau, The National Gallery, Roy Thomson Hall, The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, and Bargemusic. Francine Kay made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as the winner and Recitalist of the Year of the New York Pro Piano Competition.
She has been soloist with orchestras such as the Toronto Symphony, the Princeton Symphony, New York’s West Side Chamber Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra London, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Victoria Symphony and Sinfonia Toronto among others, under conductors such as Georg Tintner, Mark Laycock, Nurhan Arman, Agnes Grossman, Kevin Mallon, Jonathan Yates, and Simon Streatfeild.
Francine Kay’s recordings on the Analekta and Audio Ideas labels have received international acclaim. Her recording of the Debussy Preludes was nominated for a JUNO Award and selected by Germany’s Fono Forum as as Disc of the Month, citing its “astonishing grace and floating sonorities”. Francine Kay gave the premiere of Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz’s Four Contrasting Moods which became a live recording for CBC records. Ms. Kay’s performances have been broadcast on NPR, the BBC, WFMT, WCNY, Radio France, and the CBC, among others.
Ms. Kay’s collaborations include groups such as the Penderecki, Avalon, Wister, Harlem, Arianna String Quartets, Cantata Profana and Trio Arkel. She has performed at festivals such as the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Icicle Creek International Chamber Music Festival, Music Mountain, the Banff Summer Festival, the Orford Arts Centre, the International Course of Interpretation, Nowy Sacz, Poland and the 60th Chopin Festival, Marienbad, Czech Republic.
Francine Kay was the recipient of the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto Career Development Award, the Chalmers Award, and grants from the Canada Council.
Ms. Kay received her Bachelors and Masters degrees at the Juilliard School studying with Adele Marcus, the Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School in the master classes of Leon Fleisher, and the Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook studying with Gilbert Kalish. Ms. Kay was a chamber music fellow at Tanglewood, and a participant at the Banff Centre where she participated in the classes of George Sebok and Marek Jablonski.
Francine Kay is currently on the faculty of Princeton University and is a regular faculty artist at the Zodiac Academy and Festival in the south of France.