Michael Colgrass, Pulitzer Prize Winning Composer (on performance of Ice Path by Toronto Symphony). November 10, 2011:

- You were the highlight of the evening.Your piece was colorful and full of rich orchestration and structurally it kept moving. The whole orchestra sounded best in your piece.

Robert Everett-Green. Globe and Mail, November 10, 2011.

- The concert, conducted by TSO music director Peter Oundjian... an opening performance of Ice Path, by Alice Ping Yee Ho. The craft of this piece was undeniable, especially in its orchestration, and in some of Ho’s treatments of the meandering theme that began the piece on the harp and recurred elsewhere from time to time.

Lawrence Cherney,artistic director of Soundstreams Canada. October 05, 2010:

-The new piece(TorQ Machine)is hot, hot! and sensual! Rhythmic chanting that was alluring and fascinating, and borrowing imaginatively from pop culture. Bravo to you and TorQ!

Richard Todd. The Ottawa Citizen. August 04, 2009

- Alice Ping Yee Ho's Evolving Elements, a crowd pleaser that seeks to evoke the classical four elements -- fire, water, wind and earth -- was perhaps the most solid item of the first third of the afternoon. Each of its four movements seemed more effective than the last.

 

Ming CD Reviews:

(Centrediscs/Centredisques)

****  Uncle Dave Lewis : allmusic.com April, 2010

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=43:203608~T1
….Ho's music has a strong affinity for the dramatic….the listener can imagine pieces such as "Wind" from Evolving Elements for marimba and string quartet (2005) as perfect for setting an eerie, menacing, and mysterious scene from a motion picture; the movement almost makes you look over your shoulder. She also has a very strong grounding in how instruments work…..Ho's Ming is reminiscent of one of the longer, purely instrumental pieces of Harry Partch, and the joyous enthusiasm of Kami nearly calls to mind Lou Harrison, both composers who fall well outside the academic mainstream….Add Ho's name to a roster of composers who are beating their own self-wrought and stubborn path out of the 20th century into something distinctly individual and accomplished in its own right.

Laima: http://reviews.wruv.org/2010/02/music-of-alice-ping-yee-ho//

posted on Feb. 23, 2010:

"A composer who seeks to provoke an emotional response using lyricisim yet exploring tonality. These works have varied percussive elements (marimba and vibraphone here) and incorporate Asian influences. Graceful, eerie, very interesting!"

I-Jen Fang PERCUSSIVE NOTES Magazine:USA. January 2010.

".... Ming is filled with sophisticated music that demonstrates Johnston’s
great percussion skills while broadening listener’s horizons in contemporary
percussion music. This CD will bring contemporary musicians inspiration and
imagination."

Piotr Grella-Mozjko. SEE Magazine: Edmonton. July 16, 2009. CD Review:
Classical Percussion
*****
Alongside Montréal’s ATMA Classique, Canadian Music Centre’s Centrediscs/Centredisques is practically our only classical label which may be considered world-class. This newest title, devoted to the percussion music of the brilliant Canadian composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, confirms Centrediscs’ hunger for greatness. If there is a classical release worthy of the Juno Award, this is the one. Ho draws her inspiration from a variety of cultures, including Chinese and Japanese folk idioms, and spins them into something very special, a style that’s undeniably far-out, modern, and progressive, yet very approachable and extremely attractive. The disc benefits from striking design and features Canadian percussion genius Beverley Johnston (who also sings), accompanied by the fantastic Penderecki String Quartet. I cannot praise it highly enough: simply perfect.

David Olds. WHOLE NOTE: 26 June 2009. DISCoveries Editor's Corner –

Ming (CMCCD 14409) features works for solo percussion by Alice Ping Yee Ho. Beverley Johnston is featured on marimba and vibraphone in the dramatic and virtuosic Forest Rain, and a full array of percussion instruments on the title track. ....This is an exhilarating addition to the discography of both Ms Johnston and Ms Ho.

Stanley Fefferman. Showtimemagazine.ca Saturday, April 12th, 2008

"...Her music is drama. She is not concerned with form,but with the organic flow of imagination. The music, scored for winds, brass, percussion and piano, arises sporadically like physical gestures: spurts, dashes, snaps, strums, drums, blarings, ringings, and ejaculations of sound that echo, reverberate and fade into space. David Swan at the piano led the action and reaction with an insistent high register tremolo that vibrates like a wire in the blood. Very impressive music."

Paula Citron Classical 96.3 FM

Toronto Harbourfront Centre's New World Stage/Fresh Ground Performances. Jumblies Theatre's Bridge of One Hair , Friday, April 27, 2007

- Bridge of One Hair is, in reality, a staged cantata. Composer Alice Ping Yee Ho has written very attractive music for soloists, choir and a small musical ensemble that drives the action using the poetry of Hawa Jibril

Daniel Ariaratnam, The Record, May 2, 2005. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo

- Evolving Elements by Hong Kong born composer Alice Ho was the audience favourite. Marimbist  Beverlay Johnston joined the Penderecki String Quartet to create a sonically colorful extended ensemble. Ho’s culturally significant composition is based around the Chinese word Li, meaning energy…. Ho is amomg the most important composers writing in this country. She’s a top-drawer artist giving voice to the under-represented female visible minority perspective in new music.

John Fleming. St Petersburg Times, Florida. Oct. 19, 2003

- …a new work called On the Wing, five minutes of colorful orchestration, soaring melody and chirpy minimalism by Alice Ho, a Canadian of Chinese descent.

Dan Albertson, THE LIVING COMPOSERS’ PROJECT, March 2001

- The Stringtime CD is an excellent one all-around….Alice Ho’s Caprice accomplishes much over the course of its short duration, and is a real treasure.

Susan Norie, Okanagan Symphony Review. May, 2001

- "The work was contemporary in nature.. it readily delivered feelings of passion and conflict... It was a powerful piece, and delivered with ample body language by Golani."

Craig Pearson, Windsor Star. Oct. 2000

- …the highlight of the evening in terms of virtuoso soloing was also the most historic: the world premiere of Toronto composer Alice Ho's Concerto for Viola and Bass.... But Ho's contemporary concerto was also most daring, intriguing in the anarchic conversation between the viola and the double bass, which ultimately find common ground."

Neil Harris, Winnipeg Free Press. Feb. 1994

- Ho's Ice Path was an elegant exercise in orchestral color. Exploring unusual combinations of instruments, she created a palette of shimmering loveliness that obviously had great appeal to the audience

Elaine Schmidt, the Hamilton Spectator. May, 1993

- Alice Ho reached to the sky with Under the Quavering Moon...the piece is a whimsical collage of color and emotion. In contrasting rich, full orchestra passages with clean, non vibrato single lines, Ho creates a powerful musical impression. Her work, based on a simple three-note cell, is a wealth of sounds, textures and emotion.

Anne Boyd, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong.

- Impetus is extremely dynamic and works through tension arising from the juxtaposition of contrasting musical materials. John Harding, viola, and Kelvin Gonrn, double bass, responded magnificently to the challenges of this virtuosic and accomplished writing.