• Surprise performance for Classic FM kick-starts her year with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Venezuelan pianist composer, Gabriela Montero, will wow the South Coast this week ahead of a year as Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Residence.

Music lovers are invited to Bournemouth Pier — at 11.40am on Friday 27 September — to hear a surprise recital. Famed for her visionary improvisations, Montero has forged a strong following around the globe.

Montero said, “It’ll be great fun to get to know the people of Bournemouth on Friday. I’m looking forward to giving them a sense of what’s coming up this year!”

The Pier will be free to enter from 1130-1215 to hear the performance, with thanks to BCP Council. The recital will be filmed by Classic FM – the UK’s most popular classical music station – and will be available to watch at ClassicFM.com.

Montero performed at Barack Obama’s 2008 inauguration alongside Yo-Yo Ma, has been honoured by Amnesty International for her humanitarian work, and was championed by José Antonio Abreu, the founder of the ground-breaking El Sistema movement. Her performance at Vienna’s Konzerthaus was described by Der Standard as being ‘like a visit from outer space’. She’s performed with former BSO principal conductor Marin Alsop and the São Paolo Symphony, as well as with Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The celebrated musician will give five performances — in Poole, Portsmouth and Exeter — from 16 October.

Montero said of the residency, “I’m really looking forward to returning to play with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and to audiences across the South West. To play alongside my dear friend Carlos Miguel Prieto is always a treat, and I can’t wait to perform with Kirill Karabits and in recital with the BSO Soloists”.

In October, she will perform her Piano Concerto No.1, Latin Concerto, a work that honours the musical traditions that have shaped her, as she describes ‘a globalised Latin American woman raised on a diet of European classical music with multiple, circumstantial side dishes of Pan-American folklore’. A recent performance was given in New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Gabriela Montero will present 3 programmes: Latin Fiesta (16 Oct — Poole, 17 Oct —Portsmouth); Tchaikovsky Magic (4 Dec — Poole, 5 Dec — Exeter); and with the BSO Soloists (26 Feb — Poole). See bsolive.com for tickets and further details #MonteroBSO

Please download the full press release above.