Two New Steinway & Sons Pianos for the 2022 Gilmore Piano Festival feat. Yuja Wang

March 5, 2022

About a month ago, on February 4, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to New York to help purchase two new Steinway & Sons pianos for the 2022 Gilmore Piano Festival. At The Gilmore, we pride ourselves on providing world-class experiences in everything we do—and it starts with top-notch instruments for our artists. When it came time to prepare for the Festival, we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the return of live music than with a trip to the New York Steinway & Sons factory to select the instruments for ourselves.

We will be kicking off the festivities this year with a special pre-festival concert by 2006 Gilmore Young Artist, Yuja Wang. Since receiving her award, Ms. Wang has gone on to achieve enormous global recognition as one of the most important virtuosos of the twenty-first century. We were thrilled that she agreed to join us at the Steinway & Sons factory to select the pianos—and debut the concert piano that she chose, the Model D, for her performance on April 8th at Chenery Auditorium

I was joined on the trip by our board president Larry Bell, and his wife Shannon, as well as our local Steinway technician, D Marie Jones. Larry, for whom we just named the Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Awards, summarized the experience of touring the factory and working with Ms. Wang to select these two pianos as “incredibly touching”. 

Ten pianos were lined up for Ms. Wang to try out, and it was quite fascinating to watch her work and see her find her chemistry with “the one.” As she so eloquently says, the perfect piano can help you “finish a phrase” and be at your very best. I’m so grateful that we were able to make this happen for her, and for all the other pianists who will be traveling here to share their gifts. They will be met with a piano that can help to make their imaginations come alive, and for that we are so very grateful.

See you at the Festival!

pierre signature in black
Pierre van der Westhuizen, Executive & Artistic Director of The Gilmore

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