2024 Gilmore Festival Fellows

With a discography of more than 35 recordings, and a career launched in childhood, Lithuanian pianist Mūza Rubackytė performs worldwide with renowned conductors and orchestras on the most revered stages. She is founder and artistic director of the Vilnius International Piano Festival, and her repertoire spans more than forty programs in recital, concerto with orchestra, and chamber music.  

Noted as “an intelligent and innately musical artist” by Classics Today, Rubackytė was born into a family of musicians, making her professional debut at the age of 7 in Vilnius performing Haydn‘s D Major Piano Concerto with the Lithuanian National Chamber Orchestra. 

Six years later, she won the first prize in the National Young Artists Competition. The victory opened the doors to the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied under Yakov Flier, Mikhail Voskressensky and Bela Davidovitch. During this time, she won the first prize in the Tallinn (Estonia) Piano Competition. She earned diplomas at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow, and was a prize-winner at the All Union Competition in St. Petersburg and Grand Prize winner at the Budapest Liszt-Bartók International Piano Competition. 

She is a dedicated educator, holding teaching positions at a number of educational institutions, including the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater in Vilnius, Conservatoire Rachmaninoff in Paris, Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and Messiaen Academy of Music in the Netherlands. 

Frequently asked to be a juror for the most prestigious competitions, Rubackytė has been a judge at the Lithuanian International Piano Competition and International F. Liszt Piano Competition (Utrecht and Weimar), and Venice Piano Competition. 

During the Soviet period, Mūza Rubackytė was not allowed to travel outside the Communist Bloc but performed with orchestras of the Baltic states, Ukraine, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus, as well as the great ensembles of Moscow, Vilnius and St. Petersburg. She has lived in Paris since 1991, and since 2017 has recorded for the Ligia label.

Gabriela Montero has garnered critical acclaim and a devoted following on the world stage. Born in Venezuela, she started her piano studies at age four with Lyl Tiempo, making her concerto debut at age eight in her hometown of Caracas. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne, and is a graduate and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London. 

The New York Times said that “Montero’s playing had everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power… soulful lyricism… unsentimental expressivity.”

Montero is a frequent recitalist and chamber musician, and has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including in New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto, and Baltimore in the U.S.  She has also played at the Barbican’s ‘Sound Unbound’, Edinburgh, Salzburg, SettembreMusica in Milan and Turin, Lucerne, Ravinia, Gstaad, Saint-Denis, Violon sur le Sable, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Rheingau, Ruhr, Trondheim, Bergen, Gilmore, and Lugano festivals.

Recipient of the prestigious 2018 Heidelberger Frühling Music Prize, Montero is also an award-winning and best selling recording artist. Her most recent album features her own “Latin” Concerto and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, recorded with the Orchestra of the Americas in Frutillar, Chile. Her previous recording on Orchid Classics features Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and her first orchestral composition, Ex Patria, winning Montero her first Latin Grammy® for Best Classical Album (Mejor Álbum de Música Clásica). Others include Bach and Beyond, which held the top spot on the Billboard Classical Charts for several months and garnered her two Echo Klassik Awards. 

Winner of the 4th International Beethoven Award, Montero is a committed advocate for human rights whose voice regularly reaches beyond the concert hall. She was named an Honorary Consul by Amnesty International in 2015, and recognised with Outstanding Work in the Field of Human Rights by the Human Rights Foundation for her ongoing commitment to human rights advocacy in Venezuela. She was invited to participate in the 2013 Women of the World Festival at London’s Southbank Centre, and has spoken and performed twice at the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters. She was also awarded the 2012 Rockefeller Award for her contribution to the arts and was a featured performer at Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Inauguration.

Regarded as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, Piotr Anderszewski appears regularly in recital at such concert halls as the Wiener Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre des Champs-élysées and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. His collaborations with orchestras have included appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic and Berlin Staatskapelle orchestras, the London Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. He has also placed special emphasis on conducting from the piano, working with orchestras such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Camerata Salzburg. 

Anderszewski has been an exclusive artist with Warner Classics/Erato (previously Virgin Classics) since 2000. His first recording for the label was Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which went on to receive a number of prizes. He has also recorded Grammy-nominated discs of Bach’s Partitas 1, 3 and 6 and Szymanowski’s solo piano works, the latter also receiving a Gramophone award in 2006. His recording devoted to works by Robert Schumann received the BBC Music Magazine’s Recording of the Year award in 2012. Anderszewski’s disc of Bach’s English Suites nos. 1, 3 and 5, released in November 2014, went on to win both a Gramophone award and an ECHO Klassik award in 2015. His most recent recording featuring a selection of Preludes and Fugues from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book II received a Gramophone award in September 2021.

Recognised for the intensity and originality of his interpretations, Piotr Anderszewski was named a Gilmore Artist in 2002, and has been a recipient of the Szymanowski Prize and a Royal Philharmonic Society award.

He has also been the subject of several documentaries by the filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon. Piotr Anderszewski plays Diabelli Variations (2001) explores Anderszewski’s particular relationship with Beethoven’s iconic work. Unquiet Traveller (2008) is an unusual artist portrait, capturing Anderszewski’s reflections on music, performance and his Polish-Hungarian roots. In 2016 Anderszewski got behind the camera himself to explore his relationship with his native Warsaw, creating a film entitled Je m’appelle Varsovie.

In the 2022/23 season, Anderszewski focused on a new recital program, which he performed at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Vienna Musikverein, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and other major concert halls in Europe and Asia. He can also be heard with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Hailed as “the Steve Jobs of classical music” (Observer) and “the Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony” (LA Review of Books), Aubrey Bergauer is known for her results-driven, customer-centric, data-obsessed pursuit of changing the narrative for the performing arts. A “dynamic administrator” with an “unquenchable drive for canny innovation” (San Francisco Chronicle), her leadership as Executive Director of the California Symphony propelled the organization to double the size of its audience and nearly quadruple the donor base.

In 2019, the side hustle became the main hustle as she moved her consulting practice full time and has now served dozens of clients across artistic disciplines, geographies, and budgets up to $300M. Bergauer’s ability to cast and communicate vision moves large teams forward and brings stakeholders together across the institution, earning her “a reputation for coming up with great ideas and then realizing them” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Her drive to see opportunity in place of unsolvable challenges or irreversible trends produces different results than the norm, secures new revenue streams, and galvanizes audiences and donors. Bergauer builds strategic plans and organizations, leverages technology and new media to elevate and extend the brand, and prioritizes diversity and inclusion to create a stronger product on stage and off.

A graduate of Rice University with degrees in Music Performance and Business, her work and leadership has been covered in national publications including Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, Wall Street Journal, and Southwest Airlines and Symphony magazines, and she is a frequent public speaker, including TEDx, Adobe, and industry conferences inside and outside the arts.

Amanda Cook is a Boston-based music critic and digital editor with a background in flute performance, higher education, and nonprofit administration. She is the Editor-in-Chief of I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, an award-winning platform for new music. Her background in music performance, education, and nonprofit administration coupled with her current work in music journalism provides a unique perspective from which to view the current state of classical music. 

As an advocate for contemporary music, Amanda is especially interested in providing a platform for historically marginalized and underrepresented artists. As Editor-in-Chief of I CARE IF YOU LISTEN since September 2017, her work has been recognized in State of Digital Publishing, Boston Voyager Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, and Metrowest Daily News. Her writing has taken her throughout the United States and abroad, including international festival coverage from Musica nova Helsinki (Finland), SPOR Festival (Denmark), Borealis (Norway) and ISCM World Music Days/Estonian Music Days (Estonia).

Amanda has been published in National Sawdust Log; MTNA’s American Music Teacher magazine; Naxos of America’s Explore Classical Music; Sirp, an Estonian culture magazine; The Flutist Quarterly, the flagship member publication of the National Flute Association; and The Flute View: a magazine for flutists, by flutists. Her doctoral dissertation, Encounters with the Avant-Garde: Four Case Studies in the Reception History of Contemporary Flute Works (1971-present), is a synthesis of her research areas of interest: flute performance, musicology, and music criticism.

Amanda holds degrees from West Virginia University (DMA), Kent State University (MM), and George Mason University (BM). She has previously held positions as Registrar/Marketing Manager at Suzuki School of Newton; Lecturer of Music History and Theory at West Virginia University; and Instructor of Flute and Music Theory at The Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary.

Loki Karuna (formerly Garrett McQueen) is Director of Artist Equity for the American Composers Orchestra and a contributing writer for Represent Classical. He serves on the boards of the American Composers Forum as Equity Committee Chair and the Beethoven Festival Orchestra as Vice President, and maintains leadership and artistic advisory positions with the Black Opera Alliance, the Gateways Music Festival, and the Lakes Area Music Festival. 

A native of Memphis, TN, Karuna is a bassoonist who has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and symphony member across the country. He has been heard as both a performer and guest host on American Public Media’s Performance Today, and has appeared in a wide array of television programs, including Oxygen’s Snapped: Killer Couples TV One’s Fatal Attraction, and Fox’s Glee. 

Notable performances include the 2021 world premiere of Miss Me by Marcus Norris, and the orchestral premiere of Three Songs by William Grant Still. Karuna has recently embraced conducting, leading the Marble City Opera’s world premiere of I Can’t Breathe by Leslie Burrs and Brandon Gibson in 2022.

Giving voice and offering space to music by Black creators and marginalized composers drives Karuna’s focus as a performer and educator. Karuna specializes in music and racial equity presentations, with collaborators including the Gateways Music Festival, the Sphinx Organization, the Kennedy Center, the Apollo Theater, the San Francisco Symphony, and countless schools, colleges, and universities. He is the host and producer of nationally-syndicated radio programs including The Sound of 13 and The Sounds of Kwanzaa. 

Karuna has presented keynotes for events hosted by the Black Music Experience, the Minnesota Music Teachers Association, New Music Gathering, and the MacPhail Center for Music. In 2021, The New York Times noted his weekly podcast TRILLOQUY as a standout and one that is “required listening for industry leaders and listeners alike.” He holds a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance from the University of Memphis, where he studied with Lecolion Washington, and a Master of Music in Bassoon Performance from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Judith Farmer.

With over a million copies sold, Mark Nepo has moved and inspired readers and seekers all over the world with his #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening.  Beloved as a poet, teacher, and storyteller, Mark has been called “one of the finest spiritual guides of our time,” “a consummate storyteller,” and “an eloquent spiritual teacher.” His work is widely accessible and used by many and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.  A bestselling author, he has published twenty-five books and recorded sixteen audio projects.  He has received Life Achievement Awards from AgeNation (2015) and OMTimes (2023).  In 2016, he was named by Watkins: Mind Body Spirit as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People, and was also chosen as one of OWN’s SuperSoul 100, a group of inspired leaders using their gifts and voices to elevate humanity.  And In 2017 Mark became a regular columnist for Spirituality & Health Magazine..

Recent work includes Surviving Storms (due out from St. Martin’s Essentials in Sept 2022), The Book of Soul (St.  Martin’s Essentials, 2020), a Nautilus Book Award Winner; Drinking from the River of Light (Sounds True, 2019), a Nautilus Book Award Winner; More Together Than Alone (Atria, 2018) cited by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2018; Things That Join the Sea and the Sky (Sounds True, 2017), a Nautilus Book Award Winner; The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Sounds True, 2016), a Nautilus Book Award Winner; The One Life We’re Given (Atria) cited by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2016; Inside the Miracle (Sounds True) selected by Spirituality & Health Magazine as one of the top ten best books of 2015; The Endless Practice (Atria) cited by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2014; and Seven Thousand Ways to Listen (Atria), which won the 2012 Books for a Better Life Award.

Mark was part of Oprah Winfrey’s The Life You Want Tour in 2014 and has appeared several times with Oprah on her Super Soul Sunday program on OWN TV.  He has also been interviewed by Robin Roberts on Good Morning America.  The Exquisite Risk was listed by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2005, calling it “one of the best books we’ve ever read on what it takes to live an authentic life.” Mark devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship.  He continues to offer readings, lectures, and retreats.  Please visit Mark at threeintentions.com and harrywalker.com.