Howard Who?

Gabriela Montero has it all. Born in Venezuela, she is probably the most exciting female pianist today. She was a child prodigy. She won a Bronze at the Chopin International Piano Competition, certainly nothing to sneeze at especially considering that year no one won the Gold (two tied for Silver). And she has released several strictly classical albums with EMI.

But her latest album, Bach and Beyond, exploits her almost singular talent…that is the ability to improvise.

Now, I know lots of people can improvise, especially in the realm of jazz. But for a classical musician to do this is really unusual. I mean, they stick you in a practice room and tell you to play something 100 times. There’s no real room to explore possibilities. In Montero’s case, she honed this ability as a child and has the ability to improvise in a variety of styles..baroque, romantic, jazz. Along with people like Bobby McFerrin, she really embodies a new spirit of classical, one that is free to mingle with elements of the street.

It wouldn’t be much of an improvisation skill however unless it were tested. In the last month, Montero has appeared on radio for interviews regarding the new album. Both times they had a piano for her to play. Both times they threw at her a tune to improvise on. If I played this without any preface, her improv could be mistaken for a classical composition of a venerated composer. But with the preface, we realize that it is simply one of the most fascinating musical minds of our time making it up as she goes along.

Interview with Robert Siegel on All Things Considered, Sept. 18, 2006.

  Improvisation on NPR Theme (mp3) - Gabriela Montero

  Improvisation on Bach Theme (mp3) - Gabriela Montero

Interview with John Schaefer on Soundcheck, Sept. 8, 2006.

  Improvisation on Motorhead’s King of Kings (mp3) - Gabriela Montero

  Improvisation on Turkish March by Mozart (mp3) - Gabriela Montero

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 6:27 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Classical Music, Pop Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.