Pixley Points: Long Time Gilmore Patron and Contributor Takes On A New Role

We’re excited to announce a new collaboration with Zaide Pixley, PhD, professor emerita, Kalamazoo College. After receiving many enthusiastic compliments on her preconcert talks during the 2018 Festival, Zaide will be working with The Gilmore, writing our program notes. Many patrons let us know how much they enjoyed her thought-provoking discussions—and now she will bring that sensibility to our program notes!

Zaide Pixley’s long history with The Gilmore goes back to our very first festival which she remembers as “a great adventure.” Her work as an educator began at P.S. 58, Bronx and continued at Interlochen and the University of Michigan, where she earned a Ph.D. in Musicology. She was a member of the faculty at Kalamazoo College for thirty-one years and is now Professor Emerita.  Dr. Pixley has offered a wide range of courses, from music history and theory to rock and roll.  Her work as a musicologist focused first on 18th-century musical life in London and included participation in research groups in London and at the University of Oxford.

“I love learning about music,” Pixley said, “I want to enrich peoples musical experience as much as possible.” For further reading by Pixley, you can also read Great Ensemble, a history of the first seventy-five years of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. She is also (with Jane Rooks Ross) writing a sequel to celebrate the orchestra’s centenary in 2021.

Links to the program notes will be available before each recital online – you can find them on the artists’ event page. We will be sharing both Zoltán Fejérvári and Gabriela Montero’s notes in advance of their recitals in November. If you haven’t had the opportunity, you can learn more about the 2018 – 2019 Season with notes from Luca Buratto’s program.