Gabriela Montero

For the Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero, the first great challenge came at the age of eight when she performed Haydn’s Piano Concerto with the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphonic Band. So auspicious was the occasion that she was given a scholarship to study in the USA, and her meteoric rise was crowned with an invitation to perform at Barack Obama’s swearing in ceremony in 2009. In The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini gushed about the mastery of Montero’s performance, remarking that she had everything: “crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power … soulful lyricism … unsentimental expressivity.”