"sheer elan and pianistic devilment..."
BBC Magazine
“There doesn’t appear to be anything Choi can’t play – and with virtuosic panache, to boot.”
John von Rhein from the Chicago Tribune
“This year’s festival, entitled Echoes and Transformations, is the brainchild of Winston Choi … the imagination of the programming … made the concerts so fascinating.”
Kenneth DeLong, Calgary Herald (September 13, 2026)
"Enthusiasm for Winston Choi's playing of my works prompts me to say that he makes them sound so fresh and young...Bravo!"
Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter: Piano Works
"Pianist Winston Choi's playing is hale and dramatic, zealous to communicate yet extremely accurate in score realization and never overwrought. Flawless in technique and perceptive in voicing, Choi puts forth all the variety of dynamics, touch, and texture inherent in the music. Sound and editing are excellent. A must for aficionados of this important composer, or for anyone searching for prime quality East Coast piano literature."
New Music Connoiseur
"The afternoon’s highlight was Winston Choi’s performance of Anthony Cheung’s (b. 1982) 2010 solo piano work Roundabouts. The five-movement piece began with a four-note descending motive that served as an organizing trope, reminiscent of the opening of Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole. Choi’s sure hands and profound musical sensitivity brought out the shape, structure, and understated grammar of Cheung’s dense musical language."
Chicago Classical Review (3/16/2015)
"Monday night’s performance by Winston Choi was mesmerizing. The pianist drew a remarkable, finely terraced array of hues and dynamics from the keyboard, prepared notes and the instrument’s strings—conjuring an atmosphere of rapt concentration and nobility with a hushed pointillist delicacy."
Chicago Classical Review (3/16/2015)
“Choi delivered a galvanic, full-metal performance that received the loudest ovation of the night.”
Chicago Classical Review (6/2/2015)
“His playing was crystalline, each note, whether in dense chords or single-note melodic phrases, was crisply articulated.”
Chicago Classical Review (12/5/2016)
“Choi’s playing was nothing short of revelatory.”
“Again we were left yearning for any further morsel of his insightful artistry.”
Madison Magazine
"Choi's technique is tight and clean, and his tone is inviting. He is a genius with timbre."
American Record Guide - July/August 2010
“Choi, however, was up to the task and performed it with technical brilliance and ease.”
“The young pianist made the notoriously difficult work seem effortless.”
The Record (Waterloo Region - Mar 12, 2005)
“Choi is an artist with a big future … able to dig in bravely or flick off those phrases that splash color over the score.”
Eric Eriksson, the Door Peninsula Voice
"Clarity is the keynote of Choi’s presentation style, which he emphasizes by organization and dramatic, high contrast playing."
Showtime Magazine
"Choi's technique is astonishingly fluent, enabling him to render Ravel's [Gaspard de la nuit] perfurmed sonorities with seeming ease... Choi is simply superb here, constantly emphasizing the unpredictability of Mikhashoff's writing while reveling in the music's demands."
Fanfare Magazine
"Pianist Winston Choi’s solo performance Friday night, courtesy of Hallwalls and the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, was a treat for the ears, partially because he brought more than technique to the table. He did that by showcasing a style which blended chops with intelligence, serving the muse, not the other way around."
The Buffalo News (4/19/08)
"Under the fingers of Winston Choi, Alexander Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53, spilled forth in a rainbow of colors. Choi clearly enjoyed the dramatic moments of the impressionistic piece, but he also excelled at its contemplative moments."
The Washington Post (May 2005)
"This pair juggled Stockhausen's bristling technical demands with aplomb while maintaining a taut, driving energy and pulse. There were also sensitive to the composer's sense of playfulness, and when called upon to be pure musicians -- as in the fiendish, perpetual motion, toccata-esque section toward the end of the work -- delivered in spades."
The Ottawa Citizen
"Pianist Choi was also the urbane sophisticate. Here and elsewhere, he was the musical partner of a
soloist's dreams, the sensitive, can-do facilitator you'd always want at your side."
The Palm Beach Post
"Choi's trills are to die for..."
The Muskokan
"Through lavish phrases, riots of descending and ascending chords, runs and trills and other dazzlements, Choi gave voice to the (Liszt Second) concerto, a single movement entity that builds toward a series of stunning climaxes... One could easily be impressed not only by the skill level of his technique but by a poetry in the hands and heart that revealed itself when the score permitted some rhapsodizing."
Herald Times
“Glasklar der Anschlag dieses jungen Pianisten, sein Spiel analytisch und virtuos und musikantisch zugleich.”
Bavarian Radio Classical Portal
Plein soleil sur Winston Choi
“… accueillir au piano cet artiste non moins rayonnant qu’est Winston Choi …”
“Winston Choi nous met d’emblée au cœur du son et de la résonance à la faveur d’un toucher extrêmement sensible et nuancé …”
La Scene (09/24/08)
Winston Choi, le piano comme un jeu d'enfant
“… l’art de Winston Choi consiste à assouplir la réalité des touches sans ramollir le propos de la musique.”
Le Monde (04/09/08)
Winston Choi, l'Enchanteur
“Comme chez Lenot, la complexité rythmique de l’écriture se fait musique sous les doigts de cet artiste hors norme …”
La Scene (4/11/08)
“Dès l’abord, le jeune pianiste canadien y trace son propre chemin, ciselant son interprétation d’un relief sculptural.”
Bertrand Bolognesi, www.anaclase.com (2005)
“… le style d’un Jacques Lenot, si magnifiquement servi par le pianiste Winston Choi …”
Le Figaro (09/25/08)
“Winston Choi domine ces partitions … feu et sensibilité.”
JS Le Temps (23/24 août 2003)
"Winston Choi arrive parfaitement à maîtriser cette double pensée musicale pour n’en faire qu’une..."
Resmusica 2003
"Le répertoire pianistique contemporain revient – juste titre ! à l’attention de l’éditeur..."
Arts et métiers 2003
“Choi offre une interprétation souple et charpentée de la Sonate pour piano dont il éclaire la complexité polyphonique.”
Patrick Szersnovicz, 4 Etoiles Le Monde de la Musique (Sep 2003)
« L’interprétation par Winston Choi de mes oeuvres pour piano m’enthousiasme car il apporte une fraîcheur et une jeunesse remarquables … »
Jean Vermeil Répertoire juin 2003
“Winston Choï fait littéralement corps avec son piano. Un pianiste à suivre attentivement.”
Gérard Moindrot, Pianiste (juillet/août 2003)
“Winston Choi, jeune pianiste canadien d’une vingtaine d’années, offre une interprétation claire de ses pages.”
La lettre du musicien
“… beaucoup de finesse, de relief, de délicatesse, une digitalité et une virtuosité au service de la musique …”
Sylvia Avrand-Margot, La lettre du musicien (février 2003)
“Choi offre l’exemple d’une parfaite assimilation du langage extrêmement savant et complexe de Carter, qu’il aborde avec le même naturel que s’il s’agissait de Debussy …”
Alain Cochard, 5 de Diapason (juillet/août 2003)
“La réussite majeure du disque est incontestablement Night Fantaisies, dont les climats volatiles et capricieux ainsi que la montée en puissance sont rendus avec une réelle subtilité de touchers …”
Piano le Magazine (juillet-Août 2003)