The Irving S. Gilmore International Piano Festival will feature the finest international pianists playing classical, jazz, and pop music. The piano will be center stage for Gilmore-commissioned world premieres, free community concerts, films, musical theatre, and so much more.

Festival Schedule:

12:00 pm: Igor Levit: NO FEAR

A fly-on-the-wall documentary following 2018 Gilmore Artist Igor Levit from the final recordings of his Beethoven piano sonata cycle and into the beginning of Covid lockdown, when public music-making stopped and Levit gave a series of concerts from his apartment in Berlin. The film offers a very good look at the day-to-day life of a world-class artist: going from concert to studio to sleep, all the while feeding the social media beast, which will eventually turn into an important medium for Levit during Covid lockdown. Run time 78 minutes.

Location: Kalamazoo Valley Museum, Stryker Theatre

2:00PM: Paul Lewis: Schubert Sonata Series I

In a special Festival event, British pianist Paul Lewis will present a survey of Franz Schubert’s monumental contribution to the classical repertoire: his piano sonatas. Mr. Lewis has received critical and public acclaim worldwide, consolidating his reputation as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the central European classical repertoire. He regularly works as a soloist with the world’s great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw, and Cleveland Orchestras, among many others.

Location: Wellspring Theater

6:00PM & 9:00PM: Nduduzo Makhathini Quartet | Jazz at Bell’s

Nduduzo Makhathini, piano
Logan Richardson, saxophone – Zwelakhe Duma Bell, bass – Francisco Mela, drums

South African jazz pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhathini blends traditional jazz and innovative storytelling. He heads the music department at Fort Hare University, and has performed at festivals including the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and Essence Festival (New Orleans and South Africa), and in 2019 made his debut appearances at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, where he was a featured guest with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Location: Bell’s Eccentric Cafe, Kalamazoo