GABRIELA MONTERO
PIANOGABRIELA MONTERO
PIANO
ABOUT
Gabriela Montero’s visionary interpretations and unique compositional gifts have garnered her critical acclaim and a devoted following on the world stage. Anthony Tommasini remarked in The New York Times that “Montero’s playing had everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power…soulful lyricism…unsentimental expressivity.”
Montero’s 2023-2024 season will feature performances of her own “Latin Concerto” on an extensive US tour with Mexico City’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería and Carlos Miguel Prieto, as well as with the New World Symphony (Stéphane Denève), Polish National Radio Symphony (Marin Alsop), Antwerp Symphony (Elim Chan), and National Arts Centre Orchestra (Alexander Shelley), the latter with which she continues a flourishing four-year Creative Partnership through 2025. In May 2024, Montero also makes her highly anticipated return to Los Angeles to work with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Jaime Martín.
Montero’s other recent highlights include a European tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, as well as debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and the Minnesota Orchestra, where “Montero’s gripping performance…made a case that she might become the classical scene’s next great composer/pianist” (Star Tribune). Other recent highlights include residencies with the Sao Paolo Symphony, Prague Radio Symphony, Basel Symphony, and at the (partially COVID-disrupted) Rheingau Festival; debuts at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, New York’s 92nd Street Y, Paris’s Philharmonie and La Seine Musicale, and the London Piano Festival at King’s Place; and the launch of “Gabriela Montero at Prager”, an ongoing artistic residency established at the Prager Family Center for the Arts in Easton, Maryland.
Celebrated for her exceptional musicality and ability to improvise, Montero has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras to date, including: the New York, Royal Liverpool, Rotterdam, Dresden, Oslo, Vienna Radio, Naples and Netherlands Radio philharmonic orchestras; the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Zürcher Kammerorchester, and Academy of St Martin in the Fields; and the Yomiuri Nippon, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto, Baltimore, Oregon, Dallas, Vienna, Barcelona, Lucerne and Sydney symphony orchestras; the Belgian National Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra, orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, and Residentie Orkest.
A graduate and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, Montero is also a frequent recitalist and chamber musician, having given concerts at such distinguished venues as the Wigmore Hall, Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Cologne Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Herkulessaal, Sydney Opera House, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Lisbon Gulbenkian Museum, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Seoul’s LG Arts Centre, Hong Kong City Hall, and the National Concert Hall in Taipei, and at the Barbican’s ‘Sound Unbound’, London Piano, Edinburgh, Salzburg, SettembreMusica in Milan and Turin, Enescu, Lucerne, Ravinia, Colorado, Gstaad, Saint-Denis, Violon sur le Sable, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Rheingau, Ruhr, Trondheim, Bergen, and Lugano festivals.
An award-winning and bestselling recording artist, her most recent album, released in autumn 2019 on the Orchid Classics label, features her own “Latin” Concerto and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, recorded with the Orchestra of the Americas in Frutillar, Chile. Her previous recording on Orchid Classics features Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and her first orchestral composition, Ex Patria, winning Montero her first Latin Grammy® for Best Classical Album. Others include Bach and Beyond, which held the top spot on the Billboard Classical Charts for several months and garnered her two Echo Klassik Awards: the 2006 Keyboard Instrumentalist of the Year and 2007 Award for Classical Music without Borders. In 2008, she also received a Grammy® nomination for her album Baroque, and in 2010 she released Solatino, a recording inspired by her Venezuelan homeland and devoted to works by Latin American composers.
Montero made her formal debut as a composer with Ex Patria, a tone poem designed to illustrate and protest Venezuela’s descent into lawlessness, corruption, and violence. The piece was premiered in 2011 by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Montero’s first full-length composition, Piano Concerto No. 1, the “Latin Concerto”, was first performed in 2016 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with the MDR Sinfonieorchester and Kristjan Järvi, and subsequently recorded and filmed with the Orchestra of the Americas for the ARTE Konzert channel.
Winner of the 4th International Beethoven Award, Montero is a committed advocate for human rights, whose voice regularly reaches beyond the concert hall. She was named an Honorary Consul by Amnesty International in 2015 and recognised with Outstanding Work in the Field of Human Rights by the Human Rights Foundation for her ongoing commitment to human rights advocacy in Venezuela. In January 2020, she was invited to give the Dean’s Lecture at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and has spoken and performed twice at the World Economic Forum in Davos. She was also awarded the 2012 Rockefeller Award for her contribution to the arts and was a featured performer at Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Inauguration.
Born in Venezuela, Montero started her piano studies at age four, making her concerto debut at age eight in her hometown of Caracas. This led to a scholarship from the government to study privately in the USA and then at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne.
RECENT PRAISE
STAR TRIBUNE
ROB HUBBARD
And that comes through in her ‘Latin’ Concerto. It’s a work at turns invigorating, haunting, sorrowful and thrilling. Montero’s gripping performance with conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Minnesota Orchestra made a case that she might become the classical scene’s next great composer/pianist.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
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
THE INDEPENDENT
Gabriela Montero is a Venezuelan ball of fire… she extracted more downhome sweetness from the lyrical parts of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor than I have heard in a long time, but her attack was still tigerish when required.
OTTAWA CITIZEN
Montero’s sound is almost miraculously sumptuous and luscious; her phrasing gives a sense of both extension and suspension. She played the noir-ish first movement with a cinematographer’s sense of light and shadow, while the second movement floated by in simple innocence, like the most beautiful pale-blue dream from your childhood. Montero’s masterfully improvised cadenzas in the first and second movement harken back to an era when such skill and creativity were the norm for concert pianists.
NEWS
Gabriela Montero Heading to Cleveland Institute of Music as Artist-in-Residence, Piano Faculty Member
Gabriela Montero will join the Cleveland Institute of Music as the Jonathan and Linn Epstein Artist-in-Residence and Piano Faculty member. CIM writes: The brilliant constellation that is CIM’s piano faculty has gained a new star. On Thursday, Executive Vice President and Provost Scott Harrison announced the appointment of Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero as
Gabriela Montero Announced as Jury Member and Composer for the 2025 Cliburn Competition
The Cliburn today announced that award-winning pianist-composer Gabriela Montero will serve on the esteemed jury of the 2025 Cliburn Competition. She will also compose a new work that will be required in the Preliminary Round and performed by all 30 competitors. This is only the third time that a composer
Gabriela Montero Makes Her Rome Orchestral Debut with Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
This week, Gabriela Montero steps in for Yuja Wang and makes her Rome orchestral debut with the Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia in a trio of concerts from the 11-13 May. Montero will play Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1, while the orchestra performs Weinberg’s Symphony No.3. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts. More information and tickets are
Gabriela Montero Makes Her Rome Orchestral Debut with Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
This week, Gabriela Montero steps in for Yuja Wang and makes her Rome orchestral debut with the Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia in a trio of concerts from the 11-13 May. Montero will play Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1, while the orchestra performs Weinberg’s Symphony No.3. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts. More information
Gabriela Montero Named Performance Today’s 2023 Classical Woman of the Year
Gabriela Montero has been named as Performance Today’s 2023 Classical Woman of the Year. This annual award recognizes women who have made significant contributions to the classical music art form and have inspired our listeners. Fred Child, Performance Today’s host and senior editor writes: “I’m thrilled that Gabriela Montero is our 2023 Performance Today Classical Woman of
Gabriela Montero Makes Her Paris Orchestral Debut with Orchestre National de France – 16 June 2022
Gabriela Montero makes her Paris orchestral debut with Orchestre National de France this Thursday (16 June) at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, Radio France. The programme features Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, and Gabriela will play Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 1. More information and tickets are
Gabriela Montero Embarks on Tour with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Gabriela Montero begins her two week tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra this weekend, starting off at the Stadthalle Wuppertal in Germany on Saturday (14 May). After successful performances in Birmingham, Gabriela brings Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concert No.1 to Central Europe with concerts across Germany and Switzerland. The tour programme also features Brahms Symphony
Gabriela Montero Debuts at Carnegie Hall – 18 March 2022
Gabriela Montero will debut at Carnegie Hall tomorrow evening (18 March, 19:30). The programme features Schumann’s ‘Kinderszenen’, a selection of Chick Corea’s ‘Children’s Songs’ and Shostakovich’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 61. Gabriela also takes to the stage with her unique ability to compose in real time, with a performance of ‘Scenes from Childhood’; a collection
Gabriela Montero Begins Tenures as Artist-in-Residence with Basel and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Internationally acclaimed pianist-composer Gabriela Montero begins her tenures as Artist-in-Residence with the Sinfonieorchester Basel in September and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in October. Montero will perform Mozart’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 24 in C minor, KV 491 with Sinfonieorchester Basel and conductor Ivor Bolton at Stadtcasino Basel on 1 and 2 September, as
Gabriela Montero to headline London Piano Festival 2021
Acclaimed pianist-composer Gabriela Montero will headline the London Piano Festival 2021. She will give a recital inspired by the theme of movement across borders on 8 October at Kings Place. Her programme features live improvisation of a score for Charlie Chaplin’s 1917 short film The Immigrant plus works by Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and
Gabriela Montero is Pianist Magazine’s August/September Cover Star
Gabriela Montero speaks with Jessica Duchen about her acclaimed career as an award-winning compoer, pianist and improviser as Pianist magazine’s August/September cover star. Gabriela, who won a Latin Grammy® for her recording of her Latin Concerto (Orchid), is preparing to release a book of her solo compositions. Gabriela says, “I realised that my inner word
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