Francine Kay
Distinguished by “ardent lyricism” (Gramophone) and “rare sonic magic” (Le Devoir), pianist Francine Kay is noted for the beauty, intensity, and depth of her interpretations.
Francine Kay was the inaugural winner of the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto Career Development Award. She then made her solo debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall under the auspices of the New York Pro Piano Competition as their 1st prize Winner and Recitalist of the Year. Over the course of her career, she has appeared at the Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, Salle Gaveau (Paris), the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and with the Dame Myra Hess Concerts Series in Chicago. She is also a regular guest with Bargemusic (New York City), as well as at international festivals in Poland, Czechia, France, and the United States. As an orchestral soloist, Ms. Kay has performed with orchestras throughout Canada and the United States.
Francine Kay’s JUNO-nominated Debussy CD was chosen as Disc of the Month by the prestigious German publication, Fono Forum. Her 2023 release Things Lived and Dreamt (Analekta) was selected “Best of 2023” by Paolo Pietropaolo for CBC Radio’s “In Concert” program, while Gramophone reviewer Jed Distler featured Things Lives and Dreamt as one of the best piano releases of 2023 for the award-winning program “Between the Keys”, on WWFM-The Classical Network. It was also featured as “Pick of the Week” on Ireland’s RTÉ national broadcast network.
Elsewhere, Francine’s performances can be heard frequently on the CBC, NPR, BBC, and EBU networks, as well as on Radio France, SiriusXM’s “Symphony Hall”, and Chicago’s WMFT.
Francine began her musical studies in Canada, first in Montréal at the École de musique Vincent-d’Indy, then receiving the Artist Diploma at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, as well as participating in several programs at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook, counting Marek Jablonski, Gilbert Kalish and Leon Fleisher amongst her principal mentors.
