Gabriela Montero
At age eight she made her concert debut with the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra 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 13th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1995.
In recital Gabriela has appeared at the Wigmore Hall London, Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), National Arts Center Ottawa, Orchard Hall (Tokyo), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Herkulessaal (Munich), Musikhalle (Hamburg), Berlin Konzerthaus, Sala São Paulo, 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’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 is also a talented improviser. In her interview on All Things Considered, she says that when she was two or three, she began improvising on lullabies that her mother sang to her.
On her CD Bach & Beyond released in 2006, she improvises on Bach themes. She joined cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, and clarinetist Anthony McGill, who performed "Air and Simple Gifts," a new arrangement by John Williams.
Discography
Gautier Capuçon and Gabriela Montero: Rhapsody - Rachmaninov, Prokofiev Cello Sonatas (Virgin Classics, 2008)
Gabriela Montero: Baroque (EMI Classics, 2007)
Gabriela Montero: Bach and Beyond (EMI Classics, 2006)
Gabriela Montero: Piano Recital (EMI Classics, 2005)
Source
Gabriela Montero official website
Gabriela Montero official MySpace Music page
Gabriela Montero official YouTube channel
Gabriela Montero on EMI Classics
Interview on NPR's All Things Considered
Interview in The Times (London)
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