In a yearlong collaboration with Colorado Public Radio, Katie is recording the complete sonatas and fantasies of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Marmorsaal of Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg. Over the course of the project, Katie will perform the repertoire in a total of six concerts. The full concerts will be filmed live, and the individual audio recordings will be aired during “Midday Mozart” at 12 noon MST on Colorado Public Radio and accompanied by on-air discussions related to the accompanying video blog series, “Mozart Snapshots”, in which Katie takes listeners on a journey through the life of Mozart in Salzburg.
The focus of the recordings is to present a compromise between modern and historical performance as demonstrated by the use of a 2oth century instrument in a 17th hall which is not only at the center of Salzburg history and one in which the young Mozart himself regularly performed for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, but also whose acoustics have remained unaltered since the time of composition of the works recorded. Katie performs on a Baroque model Bösendorfer, selected for its lightness in the acoustic vibrance of the all-marble hall, and in an effort to capture the sound of the hall and instrument as purely as possible, recordings are made using only a single pair of microphones.
Following conclusion of the collaboration with Colorado Public Radio the audio recordings are planned for released on CD/Video.
Recorded at Schloss Mirabell, Salzburg (Tonmeister: Michele Gaggia DigitalNaturalSound); Projected release: 2023/24
On October 7, 2022, Steinway & Sons releases Katie’s latest album entitled “Once Upon a Time” featuring works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Liszt. The album – her third on the Steinway & Sons label – includes the rarely played Fantasy & Fugue in C major KV 394, the beloved Sonata No. 8 in A minor KV 310, and two works from Mozart’s childhood along with Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B minor S. 178. The program takes a look back at works which inspired Katie’s own childhood dreams once upon a time and which hold a special place in her heart and memory.
The accompanying video presents various programmatic ideas for the sonata: a struggle of good versus evil, the interplay of the heavenly versus the demonic, the illusions to Goethe’s “Faust”, and finally the possible autobiographical connections to Liszt’s own life. contemplates. Filmed in cooperation with the Fondazione Sasso San Gottardo and Liszt Festival Raiding.
The CD release is accompanied by a recording of the album’s repertoire on the Steinway Spirio piano for inclusion in the Spirio catalogue, and presented in a pre-release Spiriocast live from Steinway Hall in New York City. Album featured on the in-flight entertainment programs on Lufthansa, Austria Airlines, Swiss Airlines and Edelweiss beginning March 2023.
Recorded at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche (Tonmeister: Rainer Maillard: Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin), this recording features 8 tracks. The album is available in multiple formats worldwide on the Steinway & Sons Label. Katie can also be heard performing selections from the album on the Steinway Spirio piano beginning in October 2022.
On May 1, 2020, Steinway & Sons released Katie’s all-Beethoven album “Appassionata” as part of the yearlong celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. The program transports the listener into the inner world of this great composer. Traveling from from the Bagatelles Op. 126, his final work for piano, backwards to the Sonata No. 30 Op. 109 and finally to the beloved Appassionata sonata, we hear the expression of his emotions and
Sonata No. 30 Op. 109 and finally to the beloved Appassionata sonata, we hear the expression of his emotions and passions, and witness his transformation as an artist and a man. In the twenty years that separate the Bagatelles and the Appassionata, we feel anger transformed into humility and fear transformed into serenity.
On the accompanying video set in modern-day Vienna and the Vienna Woods, the viewer is allowed to enter the drama of Beethoven’s world through interspersing glimpses of places where Beethoven found inspiration during his more than 35 years at the Austrian capital. Filmed in cooperation with Steinway-Haus in Vienna. A CD release concert performed at the Eroica-Saal in Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna – where Beethoven himself premiered a number of works notably including the Eroica Symphony and the Fourth Piano Concerto – was streamed live by Colorado Public Radio and Classically Alive (Colorado Springs). Recorded at the Meistersaal in Berlin (Tonmeister: Rainer Maillard, Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin). Release: Steinway & Sons 2020
Together with the release of “Appassionata”, Katie was featured in the award-winning DW documentary “A World Without Beethoven” where, alongside trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. she discusses Beethoven’s influence on jazz as seen in his final piano sonata Op. 111. The seven part documentary which also features interviews by Anne-Sophie Mutter, John Williams and others explores Beethoven’s influence on the concert business, on musicians, and even on popular music, and illuminates how his innovations shaped the following centuries far beyond the boundaries of classical music. Winner of 6 international awards including the 2022 International Classical Music Award (ICMA) for best documentary.
Produced by Bernhard Fleischer Moving Images for Deutsche Welle 2020.
Katie’s first album on the Steinway & Sons label is dedicated to the memory of the “Classical Gershwin”. The album highlights the work of iconic American composer George Gershwin through a set of classically conceived arrangements of his most beloved songs. These arrangements by pianists Katie Mahan and Earl Wild favor the classical style rather than the improvisatory style one so often hears. The program selections are bookmarked by Gershwin’s two rhapsodies – Rhapsody in Blue and the Second Rhapsody – showcasing the evolution of the composer’s personality and character thorough the eight years of compositional development that separate them. Interspersed are some of the composers most well-loved songs, which highlight Gershwin’s signature lighter side. Recorded at the Meistersaal in Berlin (Tonmeister: Rainer Maillard, Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin). Release: Steinway & Sons 2019
Also included in the release is a bonus DVD of Rhapsody in Blue, brought to life as a musical journey through Gershwin’s beloved New York City. Conceived, directed and featuring Katie, the video is filmed in the New York City, and brings to life the interesting story behind the great work, which was composed in a matter of hours on a train ride from New York to Boston.
The CD release is accompanied by a recording of repertoire from the album on the Steinway Spirio piano for inclusion in the Spirio catalogue. Album was featured on the in-flight entertainment programs on Lufthansa, Austria Airlines, Swiss Airlines and Edelweiss from September 2019 until June 2020.
Recorded at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche (Tonmeister: Rainer Maillard: Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin), this recording features 9 tracks and a bonus DVD of Gershwin’s beloved Rhapsody in Blue. The album is available in multiple formats worldwide on the Steinway & Sons Label. Katie can also be heard performing Rhapsody in Blue and “I got rhythm” on the Steinway Spirio piano beginning November 1, 2019.
Katie brings her love of the French impressionist composer Claude Debussy to life in the 2019 all-Debussy album “Clair de lune”. Central to the album is the composer’s beloved masterpiece – which Katie also presents in the bonus video that was filmed in Venice and takes the viewer on a journey into the world of Pierrot and the commedia dell’arte. Following the title track, the album includes the complete Préludes Deuxième live, Pour le piano and Deux arabesques.
Recorded at the Meistersaal in Berlin (Tonmeister: Rainer Maillard, Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin). Release: KMClassic/Whyte Label 2019
To coincide with the release of “Clair de lune” Katie collaborated with Colorado Public Radio and the Denver Art Museum, for the production of a special edition CD “Music in Monet’s Time“ to accompany “Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature“, the largest exhibit of Monet artworks to come to the US in more than two decades. The CD featured a playlist of French Impressionist works in which Katie performed a selection of Debussy favorites. Her performance of Debussy’s “Clair de lune” accompanied the nearly 400,000 visitors through the exhibit of more than 120 paintings of Claude Monet. The approx. 2000 copies of the CD “Music in Monet’s Time” were sold out before the close of the exhibit on February 2, 2020
Recorded at the Meistersaal in Berlin (Tonmeister: Rainer Maillard, Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin). Release: CPR Classical 2019
Katie was invited by Deutsche Grammophon to record the Complete Solo Piano Works of the iconic American composer, conductor and educator Leonard Bernstein, as part of the Yellow label’s “Bernstein 100 Project”. The album, which was released on April 27, 2018 spans more than 50 years from the early Sonata (1938) to the Thirteen Anniversaries (1988).
Katie had a mere 6 weeks to learn the 75+ minutes of Bernstein’s piano music, and recorded the album in a single day. Recording engineer Rainer Maillard (Emil Berliner Studios GmbH, Berlin), who recorded the album, described working with Katie on the project: “Es war ein außergewöhnliche Freude und Genugtuung mit Katie zu arbeiten. Ich kenne nur wenige Künstler mit einer derartigen Professionalität. Sie war einfach top vorbereitet und hat es wirklich sehr gut gemacht. Deshalb ging die Aufnahme und der Schnitt auch so flott.“
In addition to the composer’s complete solo piano works, the album also includes a world premiere recording of “Up! Up! Up!” with American mezzo-soprano Angela Brower.
Recorded at the Meistersaal in Berlin (Tonmeister: Rainer Maillard, Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin). Release: Deutsche Grammophon 2018
Katie was invited by the Berliner Meisterschallplatten label to have the unique opportunity of recording a direct-to-disc LP. The process of making such a recording has been compared to walking a tightrope, as the performance is captured directly onto a lacquer disc from a single take, with no possibility for editing enhancement of any kind. Katie chose to record an all-Gershwin program including “Rhapsody in Blue” , Three Preludes, “Our Love is Here to Stay”, and “I Got Rhythm”. Recording is available as a hand numbered, limited edition.
Katie describes the process thus: “Recording a direct-to-disc has a special kind of energy, very much like that of a live concert. It is a unique and incredible experience because it truly captures the inspiration of the moment. Every nuance, every emotion, every wrong note, is forever preserved on vinyl, to be played and replayed. There are no tricks, no fakes. The artist must have the courage to bare his soul for the microphone, and when he does, the direct-to-disc becomes a uniquely authentic representation of the artist.”
Recorded at the Meistersaal in Berlin (Tonmeister: Rainer Maillard & Stephan Flock, Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin). Release: Berliner Meisterschallplatten 2017
Katie has just established her own CD edition, KM Classic, and plans to record, create, and release a series of new albums on the Steinway & Sons label. The recordings will each feature a music video of one or more of the pieces on the CD, geared towards attracting new, young audiences to discover classical music and the stories behind the music.
If you wish to financially support Katie’s future projects, including recordings, videos, and concerts, donations can be made directly to: