Gilmore Artist Award


The Gilmore Artist Award is awarded every four years to a concert pianist. The award was established in 1989 by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation of Kalamazoo, Michigan. In contrast with other music awards, nominees are not aware that they are under consideration, but are assessed discreetly over a period of time through live performances and recordings. The prize money is $300,000, of which $50,000 to be spent as the winner desires and $250,000 to be used for career development.

Previous winners

Every two years, the Gilmore Young Artist Award is presented to promising pianists below age 23. An anonymous selection committee receives and evaluates nominations by music professionals from around the world. As with the Gilmore Artist Award, the nominees are not aware that they are being considered. Awardees receive a $15,000 stipend and another $10,000 to commission an original piano composition that they will have the exclusive right to perform for one year.
The award was first granted in 1990. There have been 28 pianists who have received a Gilmore Young Artists Award, including Kirill Gerstein in 2002. The 2012 award recipients are George Li and Conrad Tao. In 2014, Andrew Hsu and Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner received the Gilmore Young Artist Award. The most recent winners, Daniel Hsu and Micah McLaurin, received the award in 2016.