Today would have been the official start of the 2020 Gilmore Keyboard Festival, a three-week celebration of keyboard artistry and one of the biggest festivals of its kind in the US. Early in the Covid-19 crisis, executive director Pierre van der Westhuizen saw that the festival was in jeopardy. Some international artists, who make up a large part of the festival schedule, could no longer travel. On March 13th, he announced the cancellation of the festival.
In its place, The Gilmore will offer Virtually Gilmore, a daily series of online performances from April 22 - May 5. Most of the online performances will highlight past performances from the 2018 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Gilmore's Piano Masters Series, and the Gilmore's Rising Stars Series. The 2020 Gilmore Young Artists, Maxim Lando and Misha Galant will debut the programs they would have performed at the 2020 festival, on April 25 and May 2. The final concert on May 5 will feature a livestream by the current Gilmore Artist, Igor Levit celebrating the music of Beethoven. It's the 250th anniversary year of the composer's birth.
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