Gabriela Montero (Piano, Arranger)

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Gabriela Montero (Piano, Arranger)
Born: May 10, 1970 - Caracas, Venezuela
The Venezuelan pianist, Gabriela Montero, started improvising at the piano at age four; her teacher in her native Venezuela brought her to the attention of Martha Argerich, who came to be an important influence in the young pianist's life. Montero gave her first public performance at the age of five. At age eight she made her concert debut with the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra Simon Bolivar conducted by José 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. A former student of Lyl Tiempo, Rosalina Sackstein, Andrez Esterhazy and Professor Hamish Milne at the Royal Academy of Music London, Gabriela has won international prizes including the Bronze Medal at the 13^th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1995. She lists Rudolf Barshai, Michel Béroff, and Stanislav Skrowaczewski as mentors, and performs frequently with pianist Támás Vasáry and the Janácek Quartet. 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 Orchestra and Lorin Maazel. Anthony Tommasini writing in the New York Times commented that "Ms Montero's playing had everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power in climactic moments, soulful lyricism in the ruminative passages and, best of all, unsentimental expressivity". Her other recent and future engagemnts 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 Montero 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'. She has appeared at the Roque d’Anthéron, 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 Montero offers orchestras that engage her a list of thirty-two concertos, but her recital repertory is rather odd by current standards: Short pieces vastly outnumber the few large works she plays (around 2005, these included one sonata each by Beethoven, Chopin, and Schumann). Notably, though, Gabriela Montero often plays her own improvisations, and it is as a classical improviser that she is gaining the most attention. In solo concerts, she will often play a piece by Bach or Chopin or Scriabin, and segue into an improvisation on that music, more often than not turning it into some sort of dance. Later, she will solicit from the audience themes on which to improvise, and even accepts jazz and pop melodies she's never heard before. In her interview on All Things Considered, she says that when she was 2 or 3, she began improvising on lullabies that her mother sang to her. Gabriela Montero’s first EMI/Angel CD consisted of one disc of music by Sergei Rachmaninov, 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 (released in 2006) is a full disc of improvisations on themes by Bach. She has also been profiled on the 60 Minutes television program (December 3, 2006).
"I have rarely come across a talent like Gabriela's. She is a unique artist." --Martha Argerich

Source: Gabriela Montero Website; Wikipedia Website; All Music Guide Website (Author: James Reel) Contributed by Aryeh Oron (February 2007)
Gabriela Montero: Short Biography \| Recordings of Non-Vocal Works Bach-Montero: Works \| Recordings
Links to other Sites
Gabriela Montero - Official Website Gabriela Montero (RTSI)	Gabriela Montero - Biography (AMG) Gabriela Montero (Wikipedia)

Short Biographies: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Explanation | Acronyms

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Last update: ýMarch 27, 2008 ý18:54:26