Gabriela Montero (born 1970)
Gabriela Montero was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Her musical self-education began with a toy piano at the age of seven months and continued with a more formal piano instruction at the age of four. She made her concert debut at eight and later studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Although Gabriela Montero has a successful career as a concert pianist, she is also a composer. Among other works she has composed a piano concerto entitled Latin. She is on piano in this performance:
But Gabriela Montero is best known for her piano improvisations based on themes chosen by members of the audience. Here she is improvising on a theme from a Cantonese opera and from Star Wars:
Here’s a concert film that includes some commentary by Gabriela Montero and several of her improvisations:
There’s been some academic and neuropsychological interest in Gabriela Montero’s improvisations. One study was conducted with her playing a “non-ferromagnetic piano keyboard” inside an fMRI scanner. In her recent book Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time, violinist Natalie Hodges devotes a chapter to improvisation with much discussion of Gabriela Montero.
Here’s a program that took place in 2020 at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute entitled What Choice Do I Have? Gabriela Montero Discusses Classical Improvisation, Composition, and Creative Dissent: