Since making her orchestral debut in 1999 performing Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Breckenridge Symphony, Katie has appeared in concert throughout the USA, Europe, Canada, the Middle East, Russia and Japan. She has performed with such celebrated conductors as Jiri Belohlavek, Marin Alsop – who described her as a pianist „in the style of Clara Schumann„, Grant Cooper, and Lawrence Leighton-Smith, among others, and in such famous halls as the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Prinzregenten Theatre in Munich, the great hall of the Moscow Conservatory in Moscow, and the Smetana Hall in Prague. Katie has participated in master classes by such musicians as Lang Lang – who praised her as “a fabulous pianist…full of emotion and originality” – Simon Trpceski, and Michel Béroff, and has recently preformed with orchestras including the Prague Philharmonia, Colorado Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Boulder Philharmonic, Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Wiener Residenz Orchestra, among others.
During the 2017-18 season, the American Embassy in Moscow will present Katie on a concert tour of Russia, highlighted by her Russian orchestral debut in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and a performance at the Platonov Festival in Voronezh. Further highlights of the season will include her Salzburg recital debut in the great hall of the Mozarteum, a recital tour of Germany, debuts with the New Mexico Philharmonic and Allentown Symphony, and recitals and concerto appearances throughout the USA, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands.
Katie has recorded eight independently released CDs featuring diverse repertoire, along with an all-Gershwin LP on the Berliner Meister Schallplatten label’s Direct-to-disc format that was released in July 2017. This past November Katie was also invited to record the complete solo piano works of Leonard Bernstein for international release in May 2018 by Deutsche Grammophon. The recording is part of a set of complete works in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. In 2019, Katie will establish her own label, KM Classic, and the first releases will include a Debussy album and a Gershwin album, both scheduled to appear in 2019. In addition to her CD releases, Katie is committed to finding new ways to bring younger audiences to classical music through multimedia, and is in the process of producing innovative video projects on Debussy’s Clair de lune and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue which will accompany the upcoming albums.
Katie was a protégé of Howard Waltz – himself a student of the legendary French pianist Robert Casadesus – and studied with Robert Spillman at the University of Colorado College of Music where she graduated with highest honors. In addition to performing, Katie devotes her time and talent to the support of various humanitarian, medical, and educational causes. In 2014, Katie founded the Katie Mahan Foundation “Music for a Bright Tomorrow” whose objective is to promote classical music and to inspire giving through music. Katie is a Steinway artist and was awarded the Classic Superstar 2008 award by the Berliner Salon.
Check out the official music video for “Rhapsody in Blue”