Volunteer Needs:

20 Usher/Greeter/Scanners

6 Reception

2 Information Station

TBD Transportation

Description:

Before the 2026 Gilmore Festival officially kicks off, celebrated violinist Joshua Bell returns to Kalamazoo for a special recital program with pianist Shai Wosner, previously seen on The Gilmore’s Rising Stars Series. The two have performed together to wide acclaim on numerous recital tours in the great concert halls of the United States and Europe. They will treat Gilmore audiences to a program of Romantic and early-20th-century violin sonatas by Schubert, Grieg, and Prokofiev, as well as additional surprise works to be announced from the stage.

The Gilmore presents this recital in honor of the Stulberg International String Competition’s 50th anniversary, of which Bell was gold medalist in 1981.

Pre-concert talk at 6:30 pm with Dr. Zaide Pixley in Room 130

Volunteer Needs:

20 Usher/Greeter/Scanners

6 Reception

2 Information Station

TBD Transportation

Description:

American pianist Van Cliburn instantly shot to superstardom after winning the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the height of the Cold War. At this year’s Festival, experience the World Premiere of a new one-act monodrama by American composer Evan Mack and Pulitzer-prize winning librettist Mark Campbell, exploring the impact of Cliburn’s historic win on his own life and on global culture. American Sputnik features baritone Joseph Lattanzi and Cleveland International Piano Competition-winning pianist Stanislav Khristenko dually portraying the role of Cliburn, joined by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Julian Kuerti. After intermission, 2024 Gilmore Artist Alexandre Kantorow — who followed in Cliburn’s footsteps as a winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition — joins the KSO to perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the concertos that helped Kantorow earn his victory at the competition.

Volunteer Needs:

20 Usher/Greeter/Scanners

2 Information Station

TBD Transportation

Description:

A feast for the senses, Right in the Eye combines 12 short silent films by pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès — bursting with jaw-dropping special effects — with musical virtuosity, lighting design, and more. Three musicians perform on over 50 different instruments, including rare and unique ones, live onstage alongside the films, in a one-of-a-kind production ideal for children ages five and up.

Right in the Eye is an Alcoléa & cie production.

Volunteer Needs:

20 Usher/Greeter/Scanners

6 Reception

2 Information Station

TBD Transportation

Description:

The day after performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, 2024 Gilmore Artist Alexandre Kantorow returns to give a solo recital, showcasing his varied repertoire. Anchoring the program is the final piano sonata by Beethoven and the first piano sonata by Nikolai Medtner. Kantorow also presents the US Premiere of a new work by leading Swedish composer Anders Hillborg, which Kantorow commissioned through his Gilmore Artist Award; he will premiere the work at the Lucerne Festival in January 2026.

Pre-concert talk at 7 pm with Dr. Zaide Pixley in Room 130

Volunteer Needs:

20 Usher/Greeter/Scanners

6 Reception

2 Information Station

TBD Transportation

Description:

Already beloved for his solo piano interpretations, 2010 Gilmore Artist Kirill Gerstein unveils another facet of his musical life for Festival audiences: his role as conductor. In one evening with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Gerstein both plays and conducts not one, not two, but three of Beethoven’s beloved Piano Concertos, a mind-boggling feat that must be seen to be believed. Beethoven himself frequently performed his own concertos while conducting from the keyboard, so Gilmore audiences will experience these masterworks in much the same way that audiences would have in Beethoven’s day.

Pre-concert talk at 6:30 pm with Dr. Zaide Pixley in Room 130

Volunteer Needs:

20 Usher/Greeter/Scanners

2 Information Station

TBD Transportation

Description:

For over six decades, NEA Jazz Master Chucho Valdés has defined Afro-Cuban jazz through his work as a pianist, composer, and bandleader. A winner of multiple GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY Awards, Valdés also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and has been inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. His Royal Quartet features virtuosos from the next generation of Afro-Cuban jazz, paying homage to Chick Corea, Mozart, American blues, Cuban folksongs, and more, all with their signature sense of joy and creativity.

Volunteer Needs:

20 Usher/Greeter/Scanners

2 Information Station

TBD Transportation

Description:

The 2026 Gilmore International Piano Festival concludes with an exclusive performance created especially for this occasion, uniting three of today’s most visionary artists. Sullivan Fortner, 2026 Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist, leads his trio alongside Grammy Award–winning vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant and acclaimed trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, whose distinctive sound and compositional depth have earned him international recognition. Joined by Tyrone Allen (bass) and Kayvon Gordon (drums), they will explore new musical terrain where improvisation, storytelling, and collective imagination meet in a singular finale that promises to be both intimate and transcendent.