"Westwards" - Venezuela's Gabriela Montero

An innovative pianist, composer, and improviser, Montero performs an homage to immigration through music and film at E.J. Thomas Hall’s Stage Door on Tuesday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m. This concert is part of the School of Music’s Kulas Concert Series and is presented in collaboration with Tuesday Musical’s FUZE series.  

Tickets are $45 and are free for students.  For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact Tuesday Musical Association at 330-761-3460 or info@tuesdaymusical.org.  

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Gabriela Montero’s Westward

Immigrant experience through music & film

Her visionary interpretations and unique compositional gifts have garnered Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero a devoted following on the world stage.

For President Barack Obama’s first inauguration, she joined Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Anthony McGill to perform Air and Simple Gifts, composed for the occasion by John Williams.

For Westward she’ll examines the immigrant experience, beginning with two works of Prokofiev, who left Russia after the revolution but returned almost 20 years later.

She’ll then perform works by Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky, composers who likewise emigrated from Russia after the revolution, but settled permanently in the United States, became citizens, and contributed immensely to America’s cultural life.

Finally, she’ll improvise the piano score, in real time, as we watch Charlie Chaplin’s short silent film The Immigrant, the tale of an unnamed immigrant making his journey across the ocean to America.

Discover how The Immigrant captivated and inspired Montero to create this program, including how she delved into the Chaplin archives to look at the painstaking process of restoring old film prints.