Welcome to the 24/25 Season

Presale note:

We’re offering exclusive first access to tickets for Contributors Circle donors of $100 or more. Make your donation and reserve your seats today! 

Public sale opens on August 15, 2024 at 10 am.

The Gilmore’s 2024–25 concert season will feature eight world-renowned artists and five rising stars. Tickets are on sale now for donors, and will be available for everyone on August 15. The season includes Fazıl Say, 2024 Gilmore Artist Alexandre Kantorow, Hélène Grimaud, and Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Marcus Gilmore, along with five emerging pianists.

”We are excited to announce a diverse season of jazz and classical concerts by renowned performers and rising stars,” says van der Westhuizen. “We work hard to bring the world of piano excellence to Kalamazoo with these international artists – and to continue our mission to nurture and celebrate a passion for the piano.”

The Gilmore will present five rising stars recitals and five performances by major artists including Turkish pianist Fazıl Say on Saturday, November 16 at 2 pm at the Dalton Center Recital Hall, Kalamazoo. Appearing with The Gilmore for the first time, Say will bring a program of favorites by major composers and his own compositions – including a Gilmore commission world premiere. As with many virtuosos, his talent surfaced as a young child, and he has been called “a genius” by Le Figaro, and has wowed audiences and critics ever since. In addition to touring, he has written five symphonies, two oratorios, and numerous solo concertos, piano, and chamber music works. Many were commissioned by organizations including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the BBC, Salzburger Festspiele, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Fondation Louis Vuitton. 

In 2025, French pianist Alexandre Kantorow returns to Michigan to perform with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Julian Kuerti conducting, on Wednesday, February 5 at 7:30 pm at Chevnery Auditorium. In a career that has seen meteoric acceleration, 2024 Gilmore Artist Alexandre Kantorow has been called “a fire-breathing virtuoso” by Gramophone. Performing what has been termed the “Mount Everest of concertos” – Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto – Kantorow will begin the evening with Rachmaninoff’s rarely performed First Piano Sonata. At age 22, Kantorow was the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition along with the Grand Prix – awarded together only three times in competition history. 

Accomplished artists of two generations will perform a dynamic program of music by Fauré, Wolf, and Schubert on Sunday, March 16, 4 pm at Stetson Chapel. Piano virtuoso Richard Goode is known for performances of tremendous emotional power, depth, and expressiveness. A leading interpreter of works by Mozart and Beethoven, he is an exclusive Nonesuch recording artist who won a GrammyⓇ Award for the Brahms Sonatas recorded with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. He is on the Distinguished Artist Faculty of the Peabody Institute. As few singers are, soprano Sarah Shafer is equally comfortable with lieder and opera works. Praised by The New York Times for “intensely expressive interpretations,” she has created leading roles in world premiere productions with the San Francisco Opera, and debuted works by composers including Richard Danielpour and Jennifer Higdon. She has sung with The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and at festivals including Spoleto Festival USA and the Oregon Bach Festival. 

Chenery Auditorium will welcome a special collaboration by three GrammyⓇ Award-winning jazz artists who rarely tour together on Sunday, April 13 at 7:30 pm. One of the most lyrical voices of contemporary jazz piano, Brad Mehldau’s unique path embodies the essence of jazz exploration, classical romanticism and pop allure, collaborating with artists including Pat Metheny, Renee Fleming, and Joshua Redman. He has garnered awards and admiration from both jazz purists and music enthusiasts alike, for his own compositions and brilliant re-workings of songs by The Beatles, Cole Porter, Radiohead, Paul Simon, and George Gershwin.

Bassist, composer, and bandleader Christian McBride heads ensembles including Inside Straight and the Christian McBride Big Band, among others, all endeavors that span straight-ahead, experimental, and free-leaning jazz; funk, soul, Latin, hip hop, and rhythm and blues. He is Artistic Director of the Newport Jazz Festival, Creative Chair for Jazz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and co-executive director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. He hosts National Public Radio’s Jazz Night in America, and The Lowdown: Conversations with Christian on Sirius XM. 

Drummer Marcus Gilmore – grandson of iconic drummer Roy Haynes – can be heard on the soundtrack for the film “Soul,” and premiered his first orchestral composition with members of the Cape Town Philharmonic in 2020. He has worked with Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Robert Glasper, Vijay Iyer, Derrick Hodge, Jill Scott, Norah Jones, Terrence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, and Terrace Martin.  

Known for unique interpretations of classical works, French pianist Hélène Grimaud will perform works by Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms on Wednesday, April 23 at 7:30 pm at Chenery Auditorium. Accepted at age 13 into the Paris Conservatoire, Grimaud won first prize in piano performance there just three years later. In 1987, she was invited by Daniel Barenboim to perform with the Orchestre de Paris, marking the launch of her musical career. Reviewed as “potently dramatic” by Bachtrack.com, Grimaud is an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, and her recordings have earned her the Cannes Classical Recording of the Year, Choc du Monde de la musique, Diapason d’or, Grand Prix du disque, and the Echo Klassik Award. Her most recent recordings, released in 2023, are “Silent Songs” and “For Clara.” 

RISING STARS SERIES 

The Gilmore’s Rising Stars Series will present artists new to Kalamazoo at Sunday afternoon performances at 4 pm, beginning in September and continuing through May, 2025. Venues for the series include Wellspring Theatre and Bell’s Eccentric Café.  

Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko performs September 15 at Wellspring Theatre. In 2022, he won the Honens International Piano Competition – known for honoring the whole musician – and also the New York International Piano Competition. He will perform a challenging program including a rarely heard work by Robert Schumann. Ovcharenko is pursuing a master’s degree at the Hannover Hochschule für Musik und Theater Medien. 

Multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Julius Rodriguez presents “Evergreen” at Bell’s Eccentric Café on Sunday, October 6, with his jazz quartet: Max Gerl, Brian Richburg Jr., and Alonzo Demetrius. Rodriguez combines genres in creative ways, and has performed with artists including Kurt Elling, Wynton Marsalis and A$AP Rocky. His 2022 solo debut, “Let Sound Tell All,” was hailed by NPR as “a project so dynamic that even the umbrella of jazz couldn’t quite contain its essence.” He is touring the U.S. in support of his new album, “Evergreen.”

Winner of the Herbie Hancock Institute International Jazz Competition, Yamaha Artist Jahari Stampley brings his trio to perform at Bell’s on Sunday, November 17. Lauded by Hancock himself, Stampley has performed at venues including Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York, The Met Philadelphia, Byline Bank Aragon in Chicago, and the San Francisco Jazz Center. Stampley’s debut album “Still Listening,” rose to #1 on Apple iTunes. He will perform with D’Erania Stampley and Miguel Russel.

Part of a new generation of classical artists, German pianist Elisabeth Brauss performs March 9, 2025, at Wellspring Theater. Brauss won first prize at the International Steinway Competition as a teen, and has since appeared in concerto engagements with Bournemouth Symphony, Staatsorchester Darmstadt, Göttinger Symphonieorchester, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. She has performed recent solo recitals with Beethovenhaus Bonn, at Wigmore Hall, and throughout North America at Salle Bourgie Montreal, Phillips Collection Washington, and La Jolla Music Society. 

The Gilmore’s season concludes with a recital by Daniela Liebman on Sunday, May 11, at Wellspring Theatre. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Liebman has performed with more than 30 orchestras on four continents, and made her Lincoln Center debut performing Philip Glass in 2023. She was named among the “100 Most Creative and Powerful Women” by Forbes Mexico, and has been featured in GQ Mexico and Vanity Fair. She studies at The Juilliard School, and is a Warner Classics artist and an international Yamaha artist.

Photography credits: Credits, top row from left:: Fethi Karaduman, Sasha Gusov, Steve Riskind, Vanessa Briceno
Credits, bottom row, from left: Elena Olivo, Ebru Yildiz, Ogata, Mat Hennek/ DG
Credits, from left: Courtesy Vere Music Fund, Atiba Jefferson, Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune, Felix Broede, Nikki Cardiello