Curator Bio: Katie Reimer
Katie Reimer (Music) is a New York City based concert pianist with broad interests as both a soloist and collaborative musician, acclaimed by the New York Times for her “meditative” playing . She has performed extensively across the United States, and internationally in Austria, Lithuania, and Sweden.
Her debut solo piano CD, Mirrors, was released in September, 2016 on Arabesque Records, featuring works by J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Philip Glass and the debut recording of Mohammed Fairouz’s Piano Sonata No. 2, “The Last Resistance.”
She was the Artistic Director for the Mimesis Ensemble’s debut CD on Bridge Records, featuring Mohammed Fairouz’s opera, Sumeida’s Song for 4 singers and orchestra. She collaborated with the Grammy award winning producer David Starobin, and Scott Dunn, Associate Conductor of the LA Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, for this project. Opera News selected this CD for their Dazzling Dozen best releases of 2013, calling the Mimesis Ensemble’s performance ‘very impressive.’
Her first commercial recording was released in November 2011, a disc by Sono Luminus featuring solo and chamber music by Mohammed Fairouz. She is both the pianist and the Executive Producer for the disc, and she engaged artists including the Lydian String Quartet, and James Orleans, double bass player in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The disc was selected by New York’s WQXR as their Q2 Music Album of the Week, was called ‘winningly cosmopolitan’ by the San Francisco Chronicle, and noted for its ‘versatility’ by Chicago’s WFMT.
Ms. Reimer is a passionate advocate for contemporary music. She was awarded a grant by the U.S. Embassy in Lithuania to perform a series of concerts by American composers in June, 2014. She curated and performed on a concert in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in April, 2011, as a celebration concert for Pulitzer Prize winning composer Gunther Schuller’s 85th birthday, a performance that was reviewed by the New York Times. She commissioned composer Daniel Bernard Roumain to write a solo piano piece for her in 2013, titled Nine Soul Settings of a Bach Chorale, a piece she has performed extensively.
She has been invited several times to curate and perform on concerts by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center. She also performed by invitation with The German Forum, by Steve Drury to perform at The Stone, by Musicians for Harmony on their series in Merkin Hall, and by the New York City based ensemble, counter)induction to perform at Merkin Hall.
Ms. Reimer is a passionate educator with a private piano studio in New York City, and she has been invited to perform and lecture at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and the Northeastern Wisconsin Piano Teachers’ Association. She holds degrees from the Boston Conservatory, and Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music (Magna Cum Laude), and spent a semester studying in Vienna, Austria through IES Abroad.
Reimer is currently working on a M.Div. degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. http://www.mimesisensemble.org