Vicky Chow - Selected Press

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THE WIRE - "Proving herself to be an outstanding interpreter of contemporary compositions for piano, Vicky Chow brings to this now familiar set of studies by Philip Glass the kind of expressive sensitivity that allows them to flourish. In her hands these pieces far transcend their ostensible status as technical exercises. Of course, the fascination with musical process and its functional operation that characterised early Glass works was soon superseded by an approach to composition that embraces emotional content. Rarely, however, has a recorded performance of his work been shaded with such subtle and convincing gradations of feeling as those Chow brings to even the most conceptually straightforward or starkly formal of these pieces. "

 

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New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-physically-punishing-solo-piano-masterpiece

 

" 'Sonatra' is a milestone of composition, and Vicky Chow's recording of it is a milestone of pianism" (The New Yorker, Ethan Iverson) (read full review)

 

 

"Gordon’s writing—and Chow’s execution—delivers a delirium state of rare potency." 

"But in Chow’s hands, the riffs-for-days feel can call to mind other swing references; at times, her playing conjures a vision of some vintage piano genius like Art Tatum coming back to life and getting high on post-minimalism." (Pitchfork, Seth Colter Wells) (read full review)

 

 

"Chow digs into the right side of the piano, delivering glassy notes with numbing precision—there’s a jazz-like virtuosity in the percussiveness—and when notes begin heading downward, there’s the sensation of Nat King Cole’s charming melodic touch, albeit with a razor-like drive and maniacal, tightly-coiled heft." (Bandcamp, Best of Contemporary Classical February 2018, Peter Margasak) (read full review)

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Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/20-best-avant-albums-of-2014-163252/vicky-chow-tristan-perich-surface-image-161301/

 

“New York blip wrangler Tristan Perich composed this dizzying, disorienting 63-minute symphony for piano and 1-bit pixels blooping and chirping from 40 individual speakers. Pianist Vicky Chow interacts with these manic chiptune lightning bugs in fascinating ways — first by matching them, playing in sharply defined Philip Glass rectangles; then by playing against their alarm clock relentlessness for a cool darkjazz coda. Imagine Terry Riley's Rainbow in Curved Air played by an orchestra of digital watches and cooing calculators.”

 

 

 

 

 

New York City Jazz Record: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51e96507e4b00c61fc8b61e1/t/54c9f887e4b0c0965df7cb22/1422522503023/NYC+Jazz+Record.pdf

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"one of Perich’s most successful projects to date...played wonderfully by Vicky Chow…”

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Rhapsody: Top 25 Classical Albums of 2014:  http://us.napster.com/blog/post/top-25-classical-albums-of-2014

 

I Care If You Listen: https://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2014/12/vicky-chow-tristan-perich-surface-image/

 

"a minimalist tesseract comes to life in a stellar digital release from New Amsterdam Records”

 

New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/arts/music/surface-image-by-tristan-perich-at-roulette.html 

 

New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/arts/music/contagious-sounds-takes-stage-at-cornelia-street-cafe.html

 

New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/arts/music/review-tristan-perich-the-kitchen.html

 

FLAUNT: https://www.flaunt.com/content/art/surface-image

"an aesthetically dizzying synergy of acoustic strains and synthetic sounds”

 

Musicworks Magazine: https://www.musicworks.ca/profile/vicky-chow-just-warming

 

San Diego Union: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/classical-music/sdut-bang-on-a-can-vicky-chow-2015oct21-htmlstory.html

 

NBC 7 San Diego: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/local/vicky-chows-fresh-sound-san-diego-debut/107344/

 

Vancouver Sun; https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/music/vicky-chow-and-ben-reimers-four-thousand-holes/

 

San Francisco Classical Voice: https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/los-angeles-philharmonic/adams-and-wolfe-take-listeners-on-two-very-different-head-trips

 

Dagblad Noorden (Dutch National Newspaper) : https://www.dvhn.nl/cultuur/Recensie-Noorderzon-Vicky-Chow-speelt-Philip-Glass-een-stuk-beter-dan-Philip-Glass-zelf-24739183.html

 

Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2012/02/15/pianist-vicky-chow-plays-john-cage/VNmBhOG6HuK1v6zFPRYkKI/story.html

 

The Georgia Straight: https://www.straight.com/arts/570176/pianist-vicky-chow-faces-challenges-impossible-piece

 

The Georgia Straight: https://www.straight.com/arts/345136/reich-rite-pianist-vicky-chow-takes-frightening-fingerwork

 

The Georgia Straight:https://www.straight.com/arts/1035576/young-musicians-push-piano-new-territory

 

Bandcamp: https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/expanding-the-expanse

 

"With its overlapping patterns, static harmonies, and relentless repetition—not to mention its unbroken, hour-plus length—Surface Image might easily be seen as a 21st-century companion to the minimalist classics of the 1960s”

 

WNYC New Sounds: https://www.newsounds.org/story/man-machine-meetings/ 

"an intense work of carefully constructed mathematical beauty and one of striking endurance for the pianist”

 

Pitchfork: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22637-a-o-r-t-a/

 

"Avant-garde pianist Vicky Chow releases an album full of roving, tense compositions from modern-day composers, blending her traditional piano with blurs of digital effects and percussion. "