Tonight, in a conversation recorded last month, I speak with the young Russian-born, American pianist Kirill Gerstein (above). Gerstein, 30, recently was named the 2010-2013 Gilmore Artist and, in his first "official" act, will appear at the 2010 Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in recital, master class, and concert May 3, 5, and 8. He was in Chicago in early March to make his Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concerts debut in Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, with Charles Dutoit conducting. I've known Kirill for a number of years -- he is the first recipient of the Gilmore Young Artist Award (in 2002) to be named Gilmore Artist, he is a mainstay of Elena Bashkirova's Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, and he has played with 'cellist Stephen Isserlis on The University of Chicago Presents series. We talk about finding an individual voice as a performer, the differences between spoken and musical language, the differences between and similarities of jazz and classical music, and how it is that he owns so many and such unusual pianos.
10 p.m. to 11 p.m. CDT on 98.7WFMT Chicago and via free streaming on wfmt.com and subsequently available indefinitely for download/podcast/streaming at wfmt.com/criticalthinking.
See you on the radio!
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