Christina Petrowska Quilico (born December 30, 1948) is a Canadian pianist. She is a professor emerita, senior scholar at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2020 "For her celebrated career as a classical and contemporary pianist and for championing Canadian music." In 2021, she was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2022, she was appointed to the Order of Ontario for having "opened the ears of music lovers internationally through numerous classical and contemporary performances.... As a Professor of Musicology and Piano at York University, she has received esteemed research awards. As a benefactor, she established The Christina and Louis Quilico Award at the Ontario Arts Foundation and the Canadian Opera Company." She was presented with the Ontario Arts Council's Oskar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance, "recognizing talent and commitment to Canadian music", in October 2023. As well, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation named her one of “Canada’s 25 best classical pianists”, and inducted her into its “In Concert Hall of Fame”.

Early life and education

Petrowska Quilico was born on December 30, 1948, in Ottawa, Ontario. Barely four months after turning 14, she made her performance debut at The Town Hall in New York City (May 4, 1963). She was attending the Juilliard School, where she went on to obtain her Bachelor of Music and Master's degree.

Career

After graduating from Juilliard, Petrowska Quilico went for post-graduate studies to Paris. She studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gyorgy Ligeti at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and began teaching. She later taught at The Royal Conservatory of Music, Carleton University and University of Ottawa before joining the faculty of music at York University in 1987. She is a leading performer of Canadian music, and her catalogue of 50-some discs includes many recordings of solo repertoire as well as chamber works and concertos on the Canadian Music Centre's Centrediscs label. Her double album of the complete Glass Houses cycle by her late friend, composer Ann Southam, "remains Centrediscs' best-selling CD of all time". As a duo with violinist Jacques Israelievitch, she recorded an album of Canadian music on Centrediscs and the Mozart violin and piano sonatas on the Fleur de Son label. In 1992, astronaut Steve MacLean brought her recording of Alexina Louie's Star-Filled Night on his first mission to the Space Shuttle Columbia. In 2006, on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis, MacLean took the recording of her as soloist in the world premiere performance of David Mott's piano concerto Eclipse. A visual artist as well, she has created the covers for several of her CDs, notably Sound Visionaries, and the Centrediscs CDs Worlds Apart and Soundspinning. In 2007, Petrowska Quilico received the Friends of Canadian Music Award from the Canadian Music Centre and Canadian League of Composers. Following her 2020 appointment as a member of the Order of Canada, in May 2021 she was a winner of the York University Research Awards, and that September was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. The Order of Ontario was accorded her in 2022. She also received a second York University Research Award in 2022, her third in 2023 as one of two given Distinguished Honours, and a fourth in 2024 for “Remarkable Artistic & Creative Accomplishments”.

Personal life

Petrowska-Quilico was married to composer Michel-Georges Brégent until he died in 1993. She subsequently remarried, to baritone Louis Quilico,. Following his death in 2000, in his memory she created The Christina and Louis Quilico Award, which is administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation and held every two years under the auspices of the Canadian Opera Company.

Selected discography

Orchestral / Concertos / Small Ensembles

Solo albums