ABOUT
Award winning keyboardist, Canadian-born Gili Loftus' three-fold expertise on the fortepiano, modern piano and harpsichord lend her playing a character that is unique to her, and which has opened up new and exciting paths for artistic and historical exploration which Gili has been invited to share through her performances and lectures throughout North America, Europe and Israel. She has been published in Keyboard Perspectives, and her work featured in The New York Times.
Gili completed her doctoral studies at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, triple majoring in harpsichord (Hank Knox and Alex Weimann), fortepiano (Tom Beghin) and modern piano (Sara Laimon). Winner of the second prize as well as the audience prize at the prestigious international Musica Antiqua Fortepiano Competition in Bruges, Belgium, Gili has since concertized across many international stages. In growing demand as a solo and collaborative artist, Gili has been invited to play with such period-instrument ensembles as Infusion Baroque, Ensemble Musica Humana, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra and the Kansas City Baroque Consortium. In May 2019, Gili was invited to present a recital on Clara Schumann’s original 1827 André Stein fortepiano (no. 513), housed at the Robert-Schumann-Haus in Zwickau.
As a scholar, Gili has participated in panel discussions and been invited to present lecture-recitals at various international music festivals and musicological symposiums, most recently at the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies at Cornell University, the Royaumont Foundation (France), the Norwegian Academy of Music (Norway), Bard Music Festival (NY), Bern University of the Arts (Switzerland) and at the Clara Wieck-Schumann bicentennial conference (“Clara 200”) which took place across Leipzig, Zwickau and Dresden.
Gili has also been generously supported by the America–Israel cultural foundation since 2004, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.