Photo Credit: Marco Borggreve

Listen to to Kirill Gerstein’s Complete Studio Session here

Below is an excerpt from “Kirill Gerstein’s Classical And Jazz Conundrum” by Fred Child, to read the full article, visit NPR here.

The old cliché is “a bolt from the blue.” Pianist Kirill Gerstein’s struck in an Atlanta hotel bar.

Pianists have no idea they’re even being considered for the Gilmore Artist Award. A team of piano experts put together by the Gilmore Keyboard Festival of Kalamazoo, Mich. secretly attends concerts around the world. They listen, they assess, they debate, they listen some more. And once every four years, they give their top honor to an up-and-coming pianist who is, in the Festival’s words, “a profound musician” with “charisma and breadth of musicianship,” someone who “desires and can sustain” an international career and who “can make a real impact on music.”

Last winter, Gerstein was getting ready for a concert in Atlanta. He got word that a critic from Houston wanted to meet for an interview in the hotel bar. It seemed a bit bizarre, but Gerstein agreed — what developing artist can’t use a nice write-up? He went to the bar, where there was no critic from Houston. A man with a half-smile handed him an envelope and said: “You’re it.”

If you like what you hear, join us for Kirill Gerstein, piano w/ music of Schumann, Liszt, and Oliver Knussen on Sunday, June 26th. To learn more or purchase tickets, click here!