Community Calendar

The Alaya Project is the essential bridge between the intricate Carnatic style of Indian classical music and contemporary jazz and funk. Born in the cultural bastion of Oakland, California, The Alaya Project explores new textures and perspectives built over two decades of friendship, dialogue, and musical immersion across genres and continents.

The driving hybrid kit grooves of Indian percussionist and drummer Rohan Krishnamurthy, the soulful Ragas and melodies of Prasant Radhakrishnan on saxophone, and the harmonic bedrock of Colin Hogan embodies the permanence of a changing soundscape.

Advance tickets are $17 general admission, $14 for seniors/active military and veterans, $5 for ages 25 and under, and $40 for families (2 adults + kids).

Chelsea Guo, piano

Born in New York City and raised in Connecticut, Chelsea Guo is finding equal success as a pianist and as a soprano. The winner of the 2020 National Chopin Competition in Miami, Guo also won the 2022 Young Concert Artists International Auditions as both pianist and vocalist, the double award a first in the institution’s history. Her debut recording, Chelsea Guo: Chopin In My Voice — featuring solo piano repertoire as well as two Chopin songs and a Rossini aria on which Guo accompanies herself — was named an Essential New Album by Gramophone Magazine. She holds a BM in piano from The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Hung-Kuan Chen, and she continues her vocal studies with Jason Ferrante. Gilmore audiences will experience both facets of Guo’s stellar career in her recital. The program begins with solo piano favorites, including Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata and selections from Debussy’s Images, Book I, and concludes with songs by Strauss and Schoenberg, on which Guo both sings and plays.

In collaboration with Sounds of the Zoo

Residing in California and traveling the world from Japan, Goh Kurosawa is a musician armed with Honey Beast (his guitar), Lucky8 (his amp), fresh original songs, electrifying soundscapes and stunning arrangements of familiar global melodies.

Goh has performed in schools, community centers, public libraries, and a wide range of other settings and festivals for music, art, and movement. He has completed more than 20 tours in Japan since 2006, and he has conducted music workshops/seminars all over the world at universities, music schools and other educational institutions.

Luther S. Allison, piano
Zwelakhe-Duma F. Bell le Pere, bass
Anwar Marshall, drums

Winner of a 2024 GRAMMY Award for his work with vocalist Samara Joy, Luther S. Allison is one of today’s most in-demand jazz artists. Allison is a double threat and then some; he has worked with some of the brightest stars in jazz — such as Jazzmeia Horn, Helen Sung, Rodney Whitaker, Etienne Charles, and Ulysses Owens Jr — and been called on by them to perform on piano, drums, or both. He is also carving out his own path as a leader, thanks in part to his critically acclaimed 2024 debut recording I Owe it All To You. Having grown up in the south, Allison’s unique style is rooted in blues and gospel, with strong influences from bebop and soul music. At The Gilmore, he leads his trio, featuring fellow multi-instrumentalist Anwar Marshall on drums and Zwelakhe-Duma F. Bell le Pere on bass. Later this season, Allison will arrange and music direct the sacred compositions of Duke Ellington for Jazz at Lincoln Center.

More with Luther S. Allison:
Oct. 4 at 11 AM Luther S. Allison Baby Grands Family Concert | LEARN MORE
Oct. 4 at 8 PM Luther S. Allison Trio | LEARN MORE

POSTPONED Due to a change in the touring route, the show has been postponed to Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. No need to take any action; your tickets have already been transferred to the new date.

This touching and hilarious 'tell-it-like-it-is' musical takes audiences on a journey into the lives of a group of female friends.

Audience members can’t help but laugh, cry, and even find themselves singing and dancing in the aisles as some of the most popular hit songs of the 80s and 90s make this musical a fan favorite! Follow five friends as they visit their past, celebrate their present, and look to the future on a wild and hilarious night out... and you'll recognize a bit of yourselves in every one of them!

It is described as “Desperate Housewives meets Mamma Mia” (Applause Magazine), “A boisterous, bust-out, bawdy musical revue” (Wisconsin State Journal), “An infectious, exhilarating sense of intoxication (Hollywood Reporter), and “As funny and outrageous as Sex and the City!” (The Advocate).

GIRLS NIGHT is bursting with energy and is packed with hits “Lady Marmalade,” “It’s Raining Men,” “Man I Feel Like A Woman,” “I Will Survive,” “We Are Family,” and many more.

Luther S. Allison, piano
Zwelakhe-Duma F. Bell le Pere, bass
Anwar Marshall, drums

Winner of a 2024 GRAMMY Award for his work with vocalist Samara Joy, Luther S. Allison is one of today’s most in-demand jazz artists. Allison is a double threat and then some; he has worked with some of the brightest stars in jazz — such as Jazzmeia Horn, Helen Sung, Rodney Whitaker, Etienne Charles, and Ulysses Owens Jr — and been called on by them to perform on piano, drums, or both. He is also carving out his own path as a leader, thanks in part to his critically acclaimed 2024 debut recording I Owe it All To You. Having grown up in the south, Allison’s unique style is rooted in blues and gospel, with strong influences from bebop and soul music. At The Gilmore, he leads his trio, featuring fellow multi-instrumentalist Anwar Marshall on drums and Zwelakhe-Duma F. Bell le Pere on bass. Later this season, Allison will arrange and music direct the sacred compositions of Duke Ellington for Jazz at Lincoln Center.

More with Luther S. Allison:
Oct. 4 at 11 AM Luther S. Allison Baby Grands Family Concert
Oct. 4 at 5 PM Luther S. Allison Trio

25-year-old Giorgi Gigashvili began learning piano with no intention of pursuing a professional career on the instrument. After a win on his home country of Georgia’s edition of “The Voice” at age 13, Gigashvili entered the Tbilisi State Conservatory to continue his keyboard studies with Revaz Tavadze. Early successes included First Prize at the Vigo International Piano Competition, with Martha Argerich as president of the jury, and 2nd Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. In the 2023/24 season, Gigashvili began studying with Gilmore Artist Kirill Gerstein at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. He was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist 2023-2025 and has been nominated as an ECHO Rising Star for 2025/26 season. For his Gilmore recital, Gigashvili focuses on lyrical Romantic works by Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann. The program also includes Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 8, a masterwork of 20th-century keyboard literature and one of Prokofiev’s most important contributions to the genre.

Alla Boara seeks to bring recognition and new life to Italy’s diverse history of regional folk music. Their modern arrangements of traditional folk songs are variously surprising, playful, mournful, tender and bewitching.

Their dynamic work aims to inspire audiences of all ethnic heritages to treasure their musical roots and consider historical songs’ contemporary cultural relevance. The group has received critical acclaim for its originality and accessibility.

Djékady is a collaboration between West African musician Balla Kouyaté and Grammy-winning cellist Mike Block. Their ensemble puts Malian music into conversation with American folk music and contemporary styles, allowing new shoots to sprout from his family’s musical tree.

Balla Kouyaté has been featured on numerous albums, including the Silkroad Ensembles’s Sing Me Home and Yo-Yo Ma’s Songs of Joy and Peace. His music has been recorded for the Library of Congress and heard in venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, and The Kennedy Center as well as festivals throughout the United States and Europe. As an educator, Kouyaté has offered masterclasses in universities and schools across the country, and he was chosen as a NEA National Heritage Fellow in 2019.

Mike Block is a Grammy Award-winning cellist, singer and composer with a passion for cross-cultural collaboration. Hailed as “one of the bravest, most intriguing musicians on the American fusion scene,” (Gramophone) he has been a member of the Silkroad Ensemble for nearly twenty years. Yo-Yo Ma calls Block “the ideal musician for the 21st century,” saying, “I’m always struck by his unique perspective on the world and his relaxed and confident approach; he takes on new music and new things fearlessly.”

LuFuki Ismaeel Dhul-Qarnayn is a composer, guitarist, organizer, historian and cultural curator in Detroit. He views music as a spiritual practice that brings about healing and unity, and his art practice centers around Black ancestral legacy. His ensemble Divine Providence is an Afro-Spirit jazz collective of musicians who fuse genres with the intention of connecting hearts in order to promote unity, freedom and social action.

LuFuki is currently working on several projects, including XRoads, a traveling exhibit being housed for the week by the Kalamazoo College Music Department. The exhibit explores the under-documented historical and contemporary intersections between “jazz,” Black Muslims, and social justice movements.

LuFuki will also be conducting a lecture at 4:15 PM on Wednesday, October 22.

This engagement is supported by a John Stites Jazz Event Award from the John Stites Jazz Artist Organization, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) honoring the memory of John Stites and his passion for jazz music.