Please press the play button above to hear the recorded interview, which was recently broadcast on KMFA 89.5.

Grammy Award-winning Venezuelan-born pianist Gabriela Montero returns to Austin this week for a pair of performances with Maestro Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony Orchestra in an all-Rachmaninov program which includes the composer’s Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor. Montero’s recent recording of that work with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas and Carlos Miguel Prieto won her a Latin Grammy for Best Classical Album. Montero is known for her remarkable improvisation skills, playing in the style of just about any musical genre, style, or composer and frequently inviting her audience to make requests or sing her a tune from which she improvises her encore.

Montero is also an activist who has devoted much of her life to shedding light on the humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding over the past few decades in her home country of Venezuela, and she joined host Chris Johnson on Rideshare to speak about her music, humanity, and her performances with the Austin Symphony this weekend.