Born in Ottawa, Canada, Christina Petrowska Quilico was a child prodigy.

She made her concert debut at ten years of age. A short time later, she was offered a scholarship to The Juilliard School in New York City where she studied under Rosina Lhévinne, Jeaneane Dowis and Irwin Freundlich. At fourteen, she won the High School of the Performing Arts Concerto Competition, a prize she shared with fellow student Murray Perahia, and made her New York City debut at the Town Hall.

After graduation, she studied in Europe, first at the Sorbonne in Paris and later in Darmstadt and Berlin under the tutelage of composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti . In 1971, she married her first husband, the avant-garde French-Canadian composer Michel-Georges Brégent (1948 - 1993). From 1962 to 1980, Petrowska Quilico lived in New York City, where she performed extensively as a soloist and in collaboration with her husband.

In the late 80s, she returned to Canada where she became the recitalist of choice for many prominent Canadian composers including, Glenn Buhr, Omar Daniel, Chris Paul Harman, Christos Hatzis, Larysa Kuzmenko, Alexina Louie, Heather Schmidt and Ann Southam. She debuted close to twenty piano concerti and solo works and toured extensively through North America, Europe, The Middle East and Asia.

Christina Petrowska Quilico has recorded 20 CDs as a soloist with orchestra and in chamber ensembles, and four CDs in partnership with her second husband, the late Metropolitan Opera baritone, Louis Quilico. In 1992, her CD Virtuoso Piano Music of Our Time traveled into space with Canadian astronaut Steve Maclean and debuted aboard the Space Shuttle Colombia. Maclean reprised his role as music director to the stars by taking a recording of Eclipe, featuring Christina on piano, on his most recent trip.

Recent recordings include Canadian Composers Portraits: Ann Southam and 16 Portraits: Michel-Georges Brégent for the Centrediscs/ Centredisques label.

Christina Petrowska Quilico has written three books, Mr. Rigoletto: In Conversation With Louis Quilico, Opera Illustrated: An Artistic Odyssey and Go Away Sisyphus, a volume of poetry. She is also a competitive ballroom dancer and appears in the short film, Tango Amore. Currently, Petrowska Quilico makes her home in Toronto, Canada where she is a Professor of Piano and Musicology at York University.

Read this bio in French. Free classical music. Download an MP3 file from one of Christine Petrowska Quilico's CDs.