August 2005
Rising star: Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero
Published by BBC Music Magazine, August 2005 issue.

The 34-year old Venezuela improvisational brilliance has won her the admiration of one of the world's greatest pianists

"Championed by Martha Argerich, no less, Gabriela Montero is clearly one to hear. Enticingly, too, the Venezuelan pianist's first release for EMI , Martha Argerich presents Gabriela Montero , is no run-of-the mill affair- as well as a recital disc Scriabin, Rachmaninov, de Falla and others, these is a second disc of her own improvisations. 'We recorded about six hours of improvisations', says Montero. 'One of the people in the studio would say why don't you do an improvisation on so-and -so? Or I would think of a theme of my own. It's very spur of the moment'.

Such a skill for improvisation - into styles ranging from classical to jazz to folk- gives Montero a real rarity value. It's a hit with concert audiences, too: 'I started to ask the public for themes a couple of years ago, partly to show that I was improvising there and then. It really gets the audience involved'.

Said audiences are lucky to have Montero performing at all. As she herself says, she nearly headed for a very different career: 'Though I started playing from a very young age, there was a long time when I was almost trying to rebel against my own talent. I tried to study psychology, and then wanted to go into archaeology'.

Part of the reason for this falling out with music seems to have been the 'horrible experience' of learning under a teacher in US who 'wanted me to do music for completely the wrong reasons'.

However, five years at the Royal Academy with teacher Hamish Milne brought the prodigal pianist back: 'This was a wonderful period for me. Hamish really inspired me, and he gave me a completely different focus on music than I'd previously had'. Plus, there was the influence of Argerich, who Montero plays with regularly today: 'She's not only been incredibly supportive and generous, but she is also an inspiration as a role model'.

And what's the Argentinian legend like to perform with? 'It's very exiting. You never know where she's going to turn next', Montero says".