The Imagined is the title of a new release by pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico, featuring the music of composer Alice Ping Yee Ho. The Imagined includes the world premiere of a concerto written for Quilico, titled Pictures from an Imagined Exhibition.
The album will be released on Navona Records on May 8, 2026, but you’ll be able to hear most of it live at its official launch on April 21 at Toronto’s Canadian Music Centre, and the world premiere of Ho’s concerto with the Kindred Spirits Orchestra on May 16.
The album includes four compositions — Pictures from an Imagined Exhibition (1. Free Strokes; 2. Distant Drums; 3. Mystical Mountains; 4. Dancing Colours); Hong Kong Nostalgia (1. Connaught Mansion; 2. Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas; 3. Night Markets); A Manic Ride through Lollipop Hell (1. The Labyrinth; 2. A Sad Luallaby; 3. The Great Escape); The Chinese Nightingale.
It represents Quilico’s 67th recording. Her broad ranging catalogue includes music from Mozart to the present day. Quilico has often championed the work of Canadian and women composers, and The Imagined is her second album spotlighting the music of Alice Ping Yee Ho. Blaze was released in 2023.
Christina’s gifts as a musician and as an artist come to the fore on the latest release — she also created the design for the album cover.
LV caught up with Petrowska Quilico and Ho to talk about their collaboration.
Cyclone, by composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, from Christina Petrowska Quilico’s album Blaze (2023):
Pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico & Composer Alice Ping Yee Ho: The Interview
The collaboration between the two artists is obviously a fruitful one. What qualities make it so?
“I think the generosity of a composer who allows the interpreter to have some freedom, who has an understanding of the piano and the piano repertoire, and that we play at slightly different tempos depending on the piano and the acoustics,” begins Christina Petrowska Quilico.
“To be friends, and to have fun while doing it is the most important thing,” the pianist adds.
“I think from me, the most important thing is the faith, and the trust in the partnership,” says Ho. She describes herself as a “long time fan” of Christina’s work. “It started a few years ago. Christina is so supportive,” she adds. “We stared with a recording of a double concerto.”
Alice admires the qualities that have earned Christina renown. “Beside being a virtuoso, a champion of new Canadian music,” she explains, “she is also a very generous person. She has such open mindedness.”
Ho lauds her musically adventurous spirit. “She never says no.”
“Don’t let that get out,” laughs Petrowska Quilico. “I think it’s also not being involved with one’s ego.” she says. “Thankfully Alice is so kind.”
It’s about being able to admit mistakes, and keep working. It results in a back and forth creative flow. Christina relates that she requested a cadenza in the concerto. “Which she did. She’s unbelievably gifted.”
She also notes Alice Ping Yee Ho’s prodigious output as a composer.
In the end, it’s about the ease of working together. “It’s that kind of thing. With some people that you work with, there’s an ego involved,” Petrowska Quilico says. “If you don’t give a little bit in your opinion, you’re not going to have fun and the joy of playing.
A forgiving attitude on both sides helps too.
“You have to realize that we’re all human, and we don’t play as well each time,” Petrowska Quilico says. “I appreciate Alice and her support.”
Patience also comes in handy when difficulties come up.
“We had quite the time with the electronics,” Christina says. “They’re very tricky. And we did it in an afternoon.”
Being open to new music goes back to Petrowska Quilico’s student days, and her mother’s advice, as she relates. At one point, as a child, she was stuck on Chopin, Beethoven et al. Her teacher gave her a piece of new music and wanted her to learn it. Christina initially balked at the idea, but her mother gave her a suggestion that has served her well ever since. “She said, look, try to find something in the piece, and create something beautiful for yourself. Pretend you’re playing romantic music. I ended up really loving the piece,” she recalls.
“Even if you don’t like it, and some pieces are extremely difficult, if you can find something that creates a spark, it really opens up the experience.”
Music & Storytelling
Telling a story with music is part of Petrowska Quilico’s artistic practice, which includes working with other art forms like literature, painting, and drawing. Through them all, she creates a story line.
“I think very much, this project, The Imagined, certainly, there’s a story line with the pieces that is very inspirational,” she says. It informs how she works on the technical aspects of performance, including textures, colours, and phrasing within a piece
“That makes the adventure of playing contemporary music very inspiring and very exciting,” Christina adds. “Live performing, you have to realize, it has to fun.”
Ho emphasizes that the story connects with the audience or listeners.
“I think for me, I think I need to have an emotional content in everything I create, not just intellectually,” Alice says.
The pieces on The Imagined are part of a body of work she’s created over the last few years via various commissions, and working with Christina and other artists. The pieces have revolved around memories, Japanese horror, and her own heritage.
“With Christina, I was always an admirer […] of her painting, and I always wanted to relate that experience of the light into the piece.
Pictures at an Imagined Exhibition was inspired by Petrowska Quilico’s visual art, along with that of Hong Kong ink master Wesley Tongson (1957 – 2012).
“It becomes naturally a journey, and a pianist being the interpreter, she will be the storyteller of every word that takes the audience to a landscape, to an imaginary world,” Ho explains.
“I appreciate that Alice has somehow allowed me to enter into her heritage,” Petrowska Quilico says. “I’ve always loved the paintings and the watercolours, especially, the history and the embroidery.
It just resonates with me,” she adds. “It seemed quite natural to be a storyteller. I do write a lot of poetry.”
Petrowska Quilico notes that she uses visual material to teach music, and add context to the pieces she discusses with her students.
Imagined Spaces, Art Forms
“I think the exciting part for me, for an artist, we don’t need to go to that place. We always imagine. And by imagining, we create a world that has a lot of personal nuances,” Alice says.
She notes that the audience, in turn, can create their own worlds from the music they hear. It’s not about depicting a place down to its specific, realistic detail.
“She has such an immense respect for many things, for other cultures and disciplines,” Ho says of Petrowska Quilico. “I think it was quite easy [to decide] that she would be the right pianist.”
“I think of myself as still a work in progress,” Christina says. “That makes it more fun for me to to create. I’m still learning. I’m a work in progress, and I’m willing to change, and take other people’s opinions.”
One of Christina’s paintings is the basis for the album cover. “We had some fun choosing a cover,” she says.
“The designers for record companies are wonderful. But they’re artists, they’re not musicians,” Petrowska Quilico says. “I’ve done now ten album covers. When you look at a cover, it should give an indication of a bit of the music — texture, story — but it also can’t be too fussy,” she says. “There’s a lot of passion in this album.”
Ho relates that one of the ideas came from considering Chinese characters to start with. She settled on the character that depicts “imagined”.
“I love this stroke, and it’s quite elegant,” Alice says.
The Chinese character was incorporated into Petrowska Quilico’s composition of colour and textures.
“We kind of got it,” Ho says. “We like something striking and unusual. My education going back years ago is coming into use,” she laughs.
“Covers are very important because they say what the music is about,” Christina adds. “If we work as a team, everything comes together.”
The Music
Together, the pieces cycle through a range of moods, from Ride Through Lollipop Hell, which incorporates a peaceful lullaby in between two manic movements, to the nostalgia of Hong Kong Nostalgia.
“I love that one,” notes Christina. “I hear the music through the misty clouds. It’s very impressionistic.”
Night Market blends textures and colours to depict the bustling activity of a Hong Kong night market. “I see little kids running around, and a lot of things, the smells of a market,” Petrowska Quilico says.
Chinese nightingale is a contrast. “It’s totally different,” Christina notes. It’s the piece that incorporates both ancient instruments and electronics. “But it enhances the piano part really brilliantly.” Because of the logistics of the electronic elements, it’s the one piece that won’t be performed at the album release event.
Pictures from an Imagined Exhibition is probably the most challenging. “They’re tricky to play; it’s challenging to get all of the details,” Petrowska Quilico adds. She’s looking forward to playing it live. “I think it’s going to be very exciting. I hope that I’m up to the adventure of presenting this to the audience.”
“I think just to make it concise, perhaps for the audience, perhaps it is a journey that for me starts with Hong Kong,” notes Alice Ping Yee Ho.
She points out that she was born in Hong Kong, but raised in Canada.
“I think it’s a great experience to visit all those cultures with the music,” Christina says. “I think this music is a really wonderful way to get away from the stress, and into the beauty of Chinese culture.”
Events
There are two opportunities to hear the music live in the coming few weeks, along with the CD release itself.
- The album launch takes place April 21 at the Canadian Music Centre. Tickets are free, but registration is required; info [HERE].
- The Kindred Spirits Orchestra, conducted by Kristian Alexander, will conduct the live world premiere of Ho’s concerto for piano, Pictures at an Imaginary Exhibition, on May 16. The work is featured on a program titled Images at an Exhibition, and was commissioned with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts by the KSO. Find details and tickets [HERE].
- The album is available on Navona Records as of May 8, 2026 [HERE].
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