Pianist improvises classical music on stage

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Apr 6, 2008 by Bill Blankenship

By Bill Blankenship

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

LAWRENCE - Improvisation, a skill prized in the world of jazz, isn't one encouraged in classical music where players tend to stick to the centuries-old notes on the page.

However, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven all could improvise on the spot. These masters even delighted in improvisation duets akin to a Sonny Rollins versus John Coltrane jazz duel.

Venezuelan-born pianist Gabriela Montero, who performs Thursday night at the Lied Center, has earned prizes and accolades interpreting classical scores, but she also has used the same music as a jumping-off point to create masterworks from her mind.

Improvising is something she does routinely in Webcasts from her home page, www.gabrielamontero.com, where she takes suggestions for biweekly "Live from My Living Room" concerts.

At her concert hall performances, Montero has been known to play anything from a baroque-flavored "La Cucaracha" to the Beatles' "Yesterday" in the style of Rachmoninov.

At the Lied Center, she will take audience suggestions for improvised tunes, as well as play works by Bach, Chopin, Debussy and Liszt. Improv suggestions can be e-mailed in advance to lied@ku.edu.

Montero calls her improvisational skills a gift, something she has possessed since she was 7 months old and her parents put in her crib a two-octave piano originally purchased as a Christmas gift for an older cousin.

By the time she was 18 months old, Montero was picking out tunes by ear, and she made her concerto debut at age 8 with the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra.

Montero's CDs have topped the classical music charts, and Morley Safer profiled her in a Dec. 3, 2006, segment of CBS's "60 Minutes."

Bill Blankenship can be reached at (785) 295-1284or bill.blankenship@cjonline.com.