Updates from The Gilmore

Dear Friends,

It is astonishing to me how much the world has changed in just a few short months. As concert halls around the world have gone dark, I have been working with the staff and Board at The Gilmore to find ways to continue to bring exceptional musical experiences to our audiences.

On April 22, we launched Virtually Gilmore, an online performance series featuring videos from Gilmore archives and special Gilmore-produced, live-streamed and pre-recorded webcasts. The series garnered 82,000 viewers from 14 countries, and a total of 16,000 hours of watch time so far. On May 30-31 we partnered with The New Yorker and Der Spiegel to support Igor Levit’s epic, 15-hour live stream performance of Erik Satie’s Vexations. We are honored that his 2018 Gilmore Artist award helped support Mr. Levit’s powerful statement in support of artists affected by the Covid-19 virus.

I received an outpouring of positive feedback from these performances. Hundreds of people posted enthusiastic comments and many more took the time to send long, thoughtful emails. I thank you so much for the support. It became clear to me that world-class music can be safely heard, shared, and enjoyed by an audience of thousands through this remarkable technology.

With that in mind, I want to share some of our future planning with you. At this time, it seems the best way forward is to present the entire 2020-2021 concert series online, without public performances. Virtually Gilmore will continue, and will include the Piano Masters Series, the Rising Stars Series, plus three jazz performances, presented by live stream on the Gilmore website and Gilmore YouTube channel.

I have engaged world class artists and rising young pianists for both classical and jazz performances. Each concert will be live streamed from a professional studio or venue using multiple cameras and state-of-the-art sound engineering to ensure a superb viewing and listening experience. For now, you can expect the same Gilmore performance quality you have always enjoyed, comfortably and safely at home. And who knows, let’s hope we’re happily surprised at some point during the season to allow for limited in-person events – but let’s cross that bridge when we get there, together.

I hope you will join me for this groundbreaking new season. Details regarding artists, performance dates, ticket prices, and some fun ideas for #TogetherApart watch parties will be announced later this summer. In the meantime, please stay in touch, and please enjoy archived Gilmore content on our YouTube channel!

Best wishes from out family to yours,
Pierre van der Westhuizen
Director