Venezuelan-born pianist Gabriela Montero made her concerto debut at just eight years old in Caracas, after which she continued her studies in the United States and at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Reviews and articles about Montero are characterized by recurring mentions of exceptional talent and sheer genius in the field of pianism. As a piano virtuoso, she possesses both steely percussive power and feather-light nuances; as an interpreter, she is described as both temperamental and explosive, yet captivatingly sensitive.
Montero is particularly renowned for her extraordinary ability to improvise. Her brain has even been scanned while playing to determine how it is possible to inexhaustibly improvise new music without repeating patterns or traditional musical structures.
As a performing artist, Montero is in extremely high demand; she has toured all the most iconic concert stages and performed as a soloist with dozens of major symphony orchestras across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia.
Montero debuted as a composer in 2011 with her work Ex Patria, which highlights the dire human rights situation in Venezuela. Her Piano Concerto Op. 1, Latin Concerto, premiered in 2016 at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Leipzig and has since been performed over 50 times worldwide across five continents. Montero's other compositions include Rachtime, commissioned for the international Van Cliburn Piano Competition, and the piano quintet Canaima, which will be heard during the 2025/2026 season during Montero's residency at the prestigious Barbican Centre in London.
As a recording artist, Montero is a highly esteemed interpreter of Latin American classical music. Her extensive discography on the Orchid Classics label includes bestsellers and award-winning albums, including a Latin Grammy. In addition to her own compositions and improvisations, her recordings include piano concertos by Rachmaninoff and Ravel, as well as works by Scarlatti, Bach, Scriabin, Granados, Ginastera, and Falla.
Gabriela Montero has used her platform to advocate for human rights in international forums, earning her the title of Honorary Consul by Amnesty International in 2015 and the Václav Havel Prize at the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2024. In July 2025, Montero was among the few world-renowned pianists invited by Pope Leo XIV to perform at the "Harmonies of Hope" concert held at the Vatican. In December 2025, she performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. Gabriela Montero also performed at President Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009 alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Aretha Franklin.
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