Gabriela Montero

Gabriela Montero is a Venezuelan pianist who’s amassed incredible success due to her prodigious talent and her hard work.

Montero began her career as a pianist when she was four years old, in her hometown of Caracas. She had her debut at eight, starting a path that she continues to build on to this day.

© Anders Bograad

Montero moved out of her hometown thanks to her talent, which caught the eye of scouts and musical experts. “It was miraculous how I ended up in London,” she said in an interview with the publication Ludwig Van.

“I didn’t even have enough money to get there,” she said. When speaking about music, Montero talks about her natural and organic relationship with it, describing her musicality as breathing.

“I always improvised. It’s been the way I communicate, to tell my stories. I sit down, and music just flows out. I always say I get out-of-the-way… for me, music is a metaphor to life, to stories, and improvisation has always been there.” - Gabriela Montero -

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With a lengthy career that includes stops in the orchestras of New York, Royal Liverpool, Rotterdam, Dresden, Oslo, Vienna Radio, and Netherlands, she’s currently enjoying a residence called “Gabriela Montero at Prager,” based in Maryland.

Aside from her work in music, Montero also cares deeply about the arts and has set up a mentorship program titled “Gabriela Montero Piano Lab.”

© Shelley Mosman