Gabriela Montero
Gabriela Montero has appeared with orchestras across the world from South America and the USA, Europe, to Japan and the Far East and she recently made her debut with the New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel.
Born in Caracas Venezuela, Gabriela gave her first public performance at the age of five. Aged eight she made her concerto debut with the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra conducted by Jose Antonio Abreu and was granted a scholarship from the Venezuelan government to study in the USA. At twelve she won the Baldwin National Competition and AMSA Young Artist International Piano Competition, performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
After performing a concerto or recital, Gabriela often invites her audiences to suggest a melody for improvisation by way of an encore. They ask for themes from a Haydn symphony to Star Wars, or they come to the stage to play a melody on the piano that she may or may not know. "When improvising," Montero says, "I connect with my audience in a completely unique way - and they connect with me." For Montero, who maintains a busy schedule of recital and concerto appearances in the major halls and at the major music festivals in Europe, Asia and the Americas, improvisation is not a sideline or a party trick. She explains, "Because improvisation is such a huge part of who I am, it is the most natural and spontaneous was I can express myself. I have been improvising since my hands first touched the keyboard when I was just eight months old, but for many years I kept this aspect of my playing secret. Then Martha Argerich overheard me improvising one day and was ecstatic. In fact, it was Martha who persuaded me that it was possible to combine my career as a serious 'classical' artist with the side of me that is rather unique."
Gabriela's other recent and future engagements include NDR Hannover, Boston Philharmonic with Benjamin Zander, Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Lanaudiere Festival and the Philharmonia Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel, with whom she also works regularly with the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra.
In recital Gabriela has appeared at the Wigmore Hall London, Kennedy Center Washington DC, National Arts Center Ottawa, Orchard Hall Tokyo, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Herkulessaal Munich, Musikhalle Hamburg, Berlin Konzerthaus, and will appear at the Cologne Philharmonie as part of the Cologne Musiktriennale 2007 whose theme will be 'improvisation'. Gabriela has appeared at the Roque d'Anth�ron, Radio France Montpellier, Schleswig-Holstein, MDR Musiksommer, Penderecki, and Radio Canada Chopin festivals and is invited annually to the 'Progetto Martha Argerich' Festival in Lugano and to Martha Argerich's Buenos Aires Festival.
Gabriela's first EMI/Angel CD consisted of one disc of music by Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Liszt and a second of her deeply-felt and technically brilliant improvisations. Standing alongside inspired performances of core repertoire, improvisation plays as important a part in Gabriela's life as it did for Bach and Mozart and, to show the link, her latest EMI/Angel CD Bach and Beyond is a full disc of improvisations on themes by Bach.
A former student of Lyl Tiempo, Andrez Esterhazy and Professor Hamish Milne at the Royal Academy of Music London, Gabriela has won international prizes including the Bronze Medal at the 13th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1995. She recently moved with her family to New York.
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