It was a truly unique night at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts last night with the first ever Off the Wall fundraising event. As I was leaving the event, feeling inspired and blessed to have seen so much talent in just three hours, I hoped that the UICA makes this an annual event, and I can safely assume the happy audience around me felt the same.

If there’s one thing the New Vic Theatre in Kalamazoo does exceptionally well, it’s down-home folksy storytelling with music. And that’s exactly what they have with “Radio Gals,” by Mike Carver and Mark Hardwick, which takes us into a delightfully kooky sort of Americana by way of retired music teacher Hazel Hunt’s front parlor where the Hazelnuts, a motley crew of local Arkansans, put on a radio variety show for the fun of it with a Western Electric 100-watt radio transmitter on their very own WGAL.

2018 Gilmore Artist Igor Levit has said that “permanent curiosity is essential” for him. The pianist dives deep into a concept, and use his towering skill to express it. During the 2018 Gilmore Keyboard Festival Finale on Saturday night, Levit conveyed the curiosity and humanism that is core to his art. He performed together with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra (KSO) under the baton of Raymond Harvey, music director emeritus.

Snarky Puppy, the multiple Grammy Award-winning funky jazz fusion jam band collective that defies definition, brought down the sold-out house of The State Theatre in Kalamazoo Friday night in a Gilmore Keyboard Festival performance that kicked off what promises to be a wildly successful summer tour.

In a jubilant celebration honoring the extraordinary life and achievements of one of the finest pianists of the past century, Leon Fleisher and friends offered a rousing all-Mozart program Wednesday night at Chenery Auditorium as a grand highlight of this year’s Gilmore Festival.

This year’s Gilmore Award winner, Igor Levit, played an astonishing solo concert of late Beethoven sonatas to a sold-out crowd at Kalamazoo College’s Stetson Chapel Wednesday afternoon, surpassing all expectations of seriousness and excellence.

When James Francies took the Kalamazoo Civic stage yesterday afternoon — arriving directly from the airport — he noted he liked the energy in the place. For the next hour, he, with the James Francies Trio, fed on, ran with, and cultivated that energy with wildly imaginative and kinetic original jazz.

The New York-based Emmet Cohen Trio kicked off the Gilmore Festival’s noon series Monday at the Kalamazoo Civic auditorium, delighting the crowd with their take on a variety of classic jazz tunes, paying homage to some of the jazz greats.

In the fourth and final Sunday evening Jazz Club of the Gilmore Festival at WMU’s Williams Theatre, Dr. Lonnie Smith got funky, churchy and just a little bit nasty, showing his unparalleled mastery and improvisational stylings with the Hammond B3 electric organ and more in a delightful performance full of fun surprises.

During a recent radio interview, Elliot Wuu said he was “shell-shocked” to learn that he was the winner of a 2018 Gilmore Young Artist Award. Modesty aside, the 18-year-old’s Sunday performance at the 2018 Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival made it very clear why he was deserving of the honor. Undaunted by a challenging program, Wuu brought finesse, fervor and heart to every piece, much to the delight of the Vicksburg Performing Arts Center audience.