Gabriela Montero has appeared with orchestras across the world from South America and the USA, Europe, to Japan and the Far East and she recently made her debut with the New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel. Born in Caracas Venezuela, Gabriela gave her first public performance at the age of five. Aged eight she made her concerto debut with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra conducted by Jose Antonio Abreu and was granted a scholarship from the Venezuelan government to study in the USA. At twelve she won the Baldwin National Competition and AMSA Young Artist International Piano Competition, performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. From her first contact with a piano, Gabriela has always improvised and she decided to make it public at the behest of Martha Argerich who told her not be afraid whether people would find it improper or not. After performing a concerto or recital, Gabriela often invites her audiences to suggest a melody for improvisation by way of an encore. They ask for themes from a Haydn symphony to Star Wars, or they come to the stage to play a melody on the piano that she may or may not know. Montero maintains a busy schedule of recital and concerto appearances in the major halls and at the major music festivals in Europe, Asia and the Americas, improvisation is not a sideline or a party trick. She explains, �Because improvisation is such a huge part of who I am, it is the most natural and spontaneous way I can express myself.� This season, Gabriela�s orchestral engagements include Boston Philharmonic with Benjamin Zander, Stuttgart Philharmonic, a UK tour with the Philharmonia Orchestra with Zander , Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela under Lorin Maazel , Hollywood Bowl, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra with Christian Zacharias and Lilya Zilberstein, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with Emmanuel Krivine and the Liege Orchestra with Pascal Rophee, In recital Gabriela has recently appeared at the Wigmore Hall London, Kennedy Center Washington DC, National Arts Center Ottawa, Orchard Hall Tokyo, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Herkulessaal Munich, Musikhalle Hamburg, and the Berlin Konzerthaus. Forthcoming recitals include the Cologne Philharmonie as part of the Cologne Musiktriennale 2007 whose theme will be �improvisation�, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Klavier Ruhr Festival, Lugano Festival, Caramoor Festival, Lockenhaus Festival, Colmar Festival, Verbier Festival and the Tonhalle Dusseldorf. Gabriela has a long-established relationship with the French cellist Gautier Capucon and they have performed in concert venues and festivals throughout the world. Gabriela�s first EMI/Angel CD consisted of one disc of music by Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Liszt and a second of her deeply-felt and technically brilliant improvisations. Standing alongside inspired performances of core repertoire, improvisation plays as important a part in Gabriela's life as it did for Bach and Mozart and, to show the link, her latest EMI/Angel CD Bach and Beyond is a full disc of improvisations on themes by Bach. The CD remained in the Billboard Charts for many weeks: Time Out NY described Montero�s playing on Bach and Beyond as �accomplished� and the French magazine Le Monde de la Musique gave the album its �Choc de la musique de l'année� award in 2006. Montero rounded off a triumphant year by being chosen as the Keyboard Instrumentalist of the Year at the ECHO Preis Awards in Munich. A former student of Lyl Tiempo, Andrez Esterhazy and Professor Hamish Milne at the Royal Academy of Music London, Gabriela has won international prizes including the Bronze Medal at the 13th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1995.