Our first classical performance at Dalton features American pianist Richard Goode at The Gilmore.
Many audience members may remember Goode’s 2025 appearance at Stetson Chapel, where he performed alongside soprano Sarah Shafer in a program for voice and piano. At the 2026 Gilmore Piano Festival, Goode returns for a solo recital, performing Beethoven’s Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli and Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major. Either of these works on their own would comprise a worthwhile recital program; the chance to hear both in one evening is not to be missed!
Goode is widely recognized as a leading interpreter of Classical and Romantic repertoire. His ten-CD recording of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas—the first such cycle recorded by an American-born pianist—was nominated for a GRAMMY Award and is frequently cited among the most respected recordings of this music.
As The New York Times has written:
It is virtually impossible to walk away from one of Mr. Goode’s recitals without the sense of having gained some new insight, subtle or otherwise, into the works he played or about pianism itself.
RICHARD GOODE | Sunday, May 3, 7:30 pm | Get Tickets | Concert Info
The following day begins with an afternoon performance by Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear.
Goodyear has drawn international attention for his Beethoven “Sonatathons,” a term he coined to describe his one-day performances of Beethoven’s complete cycle of piano sonatas. Like Beethoven, Goodyear is both a pianist and a composer, and he regularly includes his own music in recital programs. His Gilmore appearance features a rotating selection of Beethoven piano sonatas alongside his own compositions, including Rhapsody and Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. The program includes three of Beethoven’s most widely known sonatas—the Tempest, Moonlight, and Appassionata—placing them in dialogue with Goodyear’s original works.
Goodyear has been described as “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and as “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has performed with, and been commissioned by, major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world.
STEWART GOODYEAR | Monday, May 4, 2 pm | Get Tickets | Concert Info
Later that evening, the festival presents a duo piano program that moves fluidly between classical and jazz traditions. Pianists Brad Mehldau and Kirill Gerstein join forces for a recital that reflects their shared interest in crossing stylistic boundaries.
While Gerstein is widely known for his career as a classical pianist, his musical background includes early training in jazz piano and a long-standing engagement with improvisation. That background makes this collaboration a natural pairing with Mehldau, a Grammy Award–winning pianist and composer whose work consistently bridges composed and improvised music.
Reflecting on their partnership, Gerstein notes:
I felt an immediate, visceral pull to his musical language… Our friendship has deepened, as have our shared explorations of the porous border between written and improvised music.
Mehldau adds:
He is a virtuoso with an astoundingly large and varied repertoire, but he is much more than that.… Kirill and I have been exploring ways to combine written music and improvisation, and the program we put together will reflect that.
BRAD MEHLDAU & KIRILL GERSTEIN IN DIALOUGE | Monday, May 4, 7:30 pm | Get Tickets | Concert Info
On Tuesday, May 5, we welcome the four-time Grammy Award–winning contemporary music sextet Eighth Blackbird to The Gilmore.
Founded in 1996 by six undergraduate musicians, Eighth Blackbird continues today under the co-artistic leadership of pianist Lisa Kaplan and percussionist Matthew Duvall. The ensemble has built an international reputation for performances that foreground curiosity, collaboration, and a wide-ranging approach to contemporary repertoire.
Their Gilmore program includes a celebration of the music of American minimalist composer Steve Reich, presented during his 90th birthday year. The ensemble will perform Four Organs and Piano Phase, two landmark works of his minimalist output. The program also features the world premiere of The Spaces Between, a new work written for Eighth Blackbird by composer Clarice Assad and commissioned by The Gilmore.
Assad describes the piece as follows:
The Spaces Between plays with the architecture of filling the gaps left by other instruments, creating dialogues between different voices and generating a kinetic need to fill a void, as if struggling to find stillness within itself. One instrument’s rest becomes another’s call, creating a texture of constant motion through perpetual exchange.
EIGHTH BLACKBIRD | Tuesday, May 5, 2 pm | Get Tickets | Concert Info
On Wednesday, May 6, we’ll be joined by WMU’s own Lori Sims.
A pillar of the Kalamazoo music community, Sims is Professor of Piano at Western Michigan University, where she was named the John T. Bernhard Professor of Music in 2003—one of just thirteen endowed chairs at the school—and later designated a College of Fine Arts Distinguished Professor in 2020.
Her career is marked by major international honors, including the Gold Medal at the 1998 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition (where she also won the prize for best Brahms performance), first prize at the 1994 Felix Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin, the 1993 American Pianists Association Competition, and a silver medal at the 1987 Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition.
Sims returns to The Gilmore for a recital on piano and harpsichord, exploring how Baroque forms can be reimagined through a modern lens.
LORI SIMS | Wednesday, May 6, 2 pm | Get Tickets | Concert Info
On Thursday, May 7, the Festival presents Chopin and Viardot: A Dialogue, a program for piano and voice featuring pianist Charlotte Hu and soprano Raquel González.
The concert centers on the artistic relationship between Frédéric Chopin and Pauline Viardot, an accomplished pianist, celebrated singer, and composer whose contributions remain largely unknown today.
Viardot was a central figure in 19th-century European musical life. Admired by contemporaries such as Clara Schumann, she studied piano with Chopin, became his close collaborator, and frequently performed with him. Their musical exchange was mutual: Chopin advised Viardot on piano and vocal writing, while Viardot shared her deep knowledge of vocal technique and Spanish musical traditions. Chopin ultimately supported her idea to arrange his mazurkas for voice and piano, contributing guidance and encouragement.
Hu and González present these works alongside related repertoire, illuminating the dialogue between two closely connected musical voices.
CHOPIN AND VIARDOT: A DIALOUGE | Thursday, May 7, 2 pm | Get Tickets | Concert Info
The final classical program at Dalton Center Recital Hall takes a different form: Of Pigs and Pianos, a one-woman theatrical performance created and performed by pianist Sara Davis Buechner.
Combining spoken narrative, piano performance, and projected visuals, Of Pigs and Pianos traces Buechner’s life and career through a series of personal reflections and musical works. The title comes from her childhood answer to the question of what she wanted to be when she grew up: “a piano player and a pig farmer.” While the first aspiration became her profession, the show explores the broader journey that followed, including her experience as one of the first transgender women to transition publicly while maintaining an international concert career.
The work grew out of a written memoir Buechner began in 2013 and was later shaped for the stage with the guidance of collaborators in the performing arts. Structured around nine piano pieces framed by a chronological narrative, the program offers a reflective account of a life shaped by music, resilience, and self-definition. The premiere was praised by The New York Times, and Buechner has described the project as one of her most personally meaningful artistic undertakings.
[CONTENT WARNING: Of Pigs and Pianos contains strong adult content and language. Recommended for audiences 16 and older.]
CHOPIN AND VIARDOT: A DIALOUGE | Saturday, May 9, 1 pm | Get Tickets | Concert Info
We hope you’ll join us on the campus of WMU to experience this wide range of music we’re proud to share during the 2026 Gilmore Piano Festival.