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The Women of the Piano at the 2026 Gilmore Piano Festival

March 13, 2026

When The Gilmore lights up Southwest Michigan from April 30–May 10, 2026, the instrument at the center of it all won’t just be the piano. It’ll be the people who make it speak.
This year’s Festival is packed with women who expand what “piano artistry” can mean: genre-hopping vocalists who lead from the keyboard, fearless classical soloists, collaborative chamber innovators, and artist-teachers shaping the next generation. 

Below is a guide to the Festival’s standout “women of the piano”—where they show up, what they bring, and why you’ll want to hear them live.

Sara Davis Buechner: The piano as autobiography, bravery, and theater

The Festival’s piano storytelling reaches a peak with Sara Davis Buechner and her one-woman theatrical show “Of Pigs and Pianos.” The performance is a recounting of her life through dramatic narration, musical performances, and projected visuals. “Buechner’s story, though often wrenching, was rich with childhood fantasies, wistful longings and absurd turns that had the audience laughing along.” (The New York Times)

Buechner’s presence at The Gilmore also connects directly to the Festival’s educational mission: she’s listed among the Artist Teachers overseeing the Festival Fellows residency, and she leads a public master class as well. Additionally, the day before her performance, she’ll led a public talk in partnership with the Ladies’ Library Association and OutFront Kalamazoo.

Charlotte Hu and Raquel González: Romantic rediscovery, and the pianist as storyteller

Charlotte Hu brings a pianist’s curiosity to the Festival, especially in her recital with rising star soprano Raquel González. Built around “dialogue,” the two will pair Chopin with the music of Pauline Viardot (a formidable pianist-composer whose name deserves far more daylight). Viardot was one of the leading figures of the 19th Century, and among her many accomplishments was her extraordinary voice as a composer. During this recital, we will hear Chopin’s famous Mazurkas for piano in their original version, but also in a version transcribed for piano and voice. This will be paired with solo works by Chopin and Viardot.

It’s a reminder that the piano lives as much in repertoire choices as in repertoire itself. Here programming becomes advocacy: for under-sung voices, for historical context, and for the kind of performance that feels like a guided tour through an era’s imagination.

Charlotte Hu is also featured as an Artist Teacher in the Festival’s Fellowship residency, including a public master class.

Lisa Kaplan with Eighth Blackbird: Piano as a catalytic force

Lisa Kaplan of Eighth BlackbirdKaplan pictured on the left in red

In contemporary music, the piano can be percussion, engine, color, and architecture all at once, and Lisa Kaplan embodies that versatility as the pianist of Eighth Blackbird. At The Gilmore, the GRAMMY-winning ensemble brings a program that nods to minimalist touchstones (Steve Reich) while also championing the new, including a world premiere of a piece by Clarice Assad, commissioned by The Gilmore.

Expect the piano to function less like “soloist” and more like a nerve center—locking in rhythmic grids, sparking timbral surprises, and propelling the kind of ensemble virtuosity that makes Eighth Blackbird such a thrilling live experience.

Lori Sims: A Kalamazoo pillar, rewriting the keyboard story (with harpsichord, too)

Few pianists can make a convincing case that the past and the present are best heard together, but Lori Sims does exactly that. Her Festival recital is billed as a journey on piano and harpsichord, showing how Baroque forms and the harpsichord’s sound world can be updated and reworked in a modern context.

Her program moves from Bach to modern masters (including Ligeti and Gubaidulina), which is a thrilling way to hear how keyboard thinking evolves across centuries while staying rooted in pattern, pulse, and imagination.

And if you want to watch artistry being built in real time, don’t miss her Festival master class—part of the Fellowship residency where audiences can witness the creative process up close.

Kandace Springs: Soul, swing, and a singer’s sense of the keyboard

Kandace Springs playing the keyboard

Kandace Springs is the kind of artist who makes the piano feel like a voice, and the voice feel like an extension of the keys. Her Gilmore appearance spotlights her as pianist and singer, with a career rooted in lyricism and “soulfulness,” and a résumé that includes sharing stages with major names across pop and jazz worlds. If you love jazz that’s melodic, emotionally direct, and beautifully crafted, this is a set built for you: a voice-forward show with the rhythmic intelligence and harmonic glow that comes from leading at the piano.[/one-half-first]

Nicole Zuraitis: A modern jazz vocalist-pianist with big compositional wins

Nicole Zuraitis

Nicole Zuraitis arrives at The Gilmore with serious momentum: her album How Love Begins won the 2024 GRAMMY Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and the achievement is especially notable because the record is made up entirely of original compositions and arrangements.

But awards only tell part of the story—Zuraitis is also a bandleader and arranger who builds shows with dynamic shape, spotlighting the musicians around her while steering the room with her voice and keyboard.

Renee Rosnes: A jazz pianist’s jazz pianist—solo, duo, and as a visionary bandleader

Renee Rosnes

If you’re mapping the modern jazz piano landscape, Renee Rosnes is a landmark. At The Gilmore, you can hear her in multiple dimensions:

1) ARTEMIS: the all-star collective voice
Rosnes appears with ARTEMIS, the acclaimed all female jazz group she originally assembled. Their powerful collective voice comes from its multinational, intergenerational lineup. At the Festival they’ll draw from three Blue Note albums, mixing originals by all five members with Rosnes’ arrangements of composers like Wayne Shorter and Burt Bacharach. 

2) Duo piano with Bill Charlap: deep listening at two grand pianos
Rosnes also performs with her husband, the legendary Bill Charlap, in a two-piano setting shaped by years of collaboration (including their Blue Note duet album Double Portrait).  Their duo performance is a meeting point of standards, Broadway, and originals, with music built on trust and real-time musical conversation.

And, like several women featured here, Rosnes is part of the Festival’s artist-teacher ecosystem, with a master class that’s free and open to the public.

Cécile McLorin Salvant: A GRAMMY-winning vocalist who reimagines the jazz tradition

Cécile McLorin Salvant is a composer, singer, and visual artist known for her adventurous approach to song. A multiple GRAMMY Award winner and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she is celebrated for uncovering overlooked repertoire and weaving together influences from jazz, blues, theater, and folk traditions.

But accolades only hint at what makes her artistry so compelling. Salvant approaches performance as storytelling. At the 2026 Festival, she joins pianist 2026 Bell Artist Sullivan Fortner, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Tyrone Allen, and drummer Kayvon Gordon for a finale created especially for the occasion, where improvisation and narrative come together in a closing night designed to feel both intimate and electric.

— Pierre van der Westhuizen, Executive & Artistic Director, The Gilmore Piano Festival

Quick “Where to Hear Them” cheat sheet

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