Gilmore Piano Festival
You came all the way from Ann Arbor?” asked the Kalamazoo resident. It’s obvious that they don’t appreciate the treasure that is the Gilmore 
Piano Festival. What’s surprising to me is that more people don’t come from far and wide. This year there were 75 classical and jazz events over eleven days: three concerts most days, master classes, films, talks, and family programs. The challenge, seeing as Kalamazoo is a 90-minute drive from Ann Arbor, is to choose when to attend, given performances by the likes of Joshua Bell, Sullivan Fortner with Cecile McLoren Salvant and Ambrose Akinmusire, Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes, Chucho Valdez, Brad Meldau, Cyrus Chestnut, Christian McBride, and many more. We chose three days and attended four classical and four jazz concerts.
Each day started at noon with a jazz trio downtown at the Kalamazoo Civic Theater, a half mile from our airbnb. Leading off was the 
Tyler Bullock Trio (right). Bullock, on piano, is the 2026 Bell Young Artist. He, Ryoma Takenaga on bass, and Koleby Royston on drums acquited themselves with aplomb, playing standards and their own compositions. We had a divided opinion on the Nicole Zuraitis Quartet, fresh from shows in Milan, Italy, via Paris. Jeff felt Zuraitis was weak on vocals and the piano, nor was he impressed with the others: Idan Morin on guitar, Sam Weber on bass, and Dan Pugach on drums. Though Zuraitis received a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal album in 2024, Jeff felt little jazz here. On the other hand, Sandy found they made a good mix, jet-lagged though they said they were. The Yes! Trio (top) knocked it out of the park. Aaron Goldberg on piano, Omer Avital on bass and native Detroiter Ali Jackson on drums are consummate New York City professionals, even if, as Goldberg said, it felt surreal to be playing at noon, and in Kalamazoo. (That got a laugh.) They played everything from Frank Sinatra to Abdullah Ibrahim with verve and passion. (Jeff adds that not only did Jackson play with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra but he graduated from Cass Tech H.S., Jeff’s own alma mater – so you know he was destined for excellence.) The other jazz concert we attended was Charlap and Rosnes, husband and wife playing — together or in turns — mostly standards on two Steinways, tail to tail, though Rosnes also played a composition she wrote for Charlap’s birthday. The audience was mesmerized by how well they complimented each other, alternating taking the lead, song to song.
The classical pieces are worthy of more than the brief mention they’ll get here. Kiril Gerstein 
was a tour de force conducting the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra (above) and soloing on Beethoven’s piano concertos #1, #3 and #4. Lori Sims (right), a long-time Western Michigan University pianist who is being snapped up by the University of Indiana, played a dynamic program on both piano and harpsichord. Likely the most unique program was by pianist Charlotte Hu, a sublime interpreter of Chopin, who also accompanied soprano Raquel González (above) as she sang songs that Pauline Viardot, a friend of Chopin, had written from Chopin’s mazurkas. Jeff, who ordinarily does not like the soprano range, was spellbound. As pianist Nathan Cheung played Chopin’s “Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 in the style of Bill Evans”, Sandy saw someone seated nearby with the book “Chasing Chopin” by Annik LaFarge. Once back in Ann Arbor, she checked that book out from the library immediately and - guess what! - it talks about classical pieces adapted into jazz (usually Bach or Ravel) and referred to as the "Third Stream", a term coined by composer Gunther Schuller. An excellent post-festival link-in.
Our final performance was a recital by the four Gilmore Fellows. Each performed admirably separately, and then all came out, taking turns at the piano bench for the last piece by Lavignac: Galop-marche, eight hands. You never know what you’ll experience at the Gilmore Festival!
While we didn’t stay for the evening concert our last day, we did get home in time to watch the livestream of the jazz quintet Artemis, led by Renee Rosnes. In fact many of the concerts will be available online into early June at youtube.com/@TheGilmore/streams.
The Gilmore Piano Festival is now an annual event. Mark your calendars next year for April 29 to May 9, 2027. See more at thegilmore.org.
photographs by Jeff Gaynor