Gabriela Montero finds her place in 'wonderful' CIM Piano Department

On the international scene, Gabriela Montero is an undisputed star.  Here at CIM, she’s a team player.  

In her first interview since coming to CIM as the Jonathan and Linn Epstein Artist-in-Residence, the acclaimed pianist said the best thing about her new appointment is being one piece in a brilliant and varied puzzle.  

Some members of the CIM piano faculty have brilliant solo careers. Others pursue chamber music, recording, or teaching. Still others have themselves to early music or other specialized repertoire.  

“[W]e all have very different careers...but we come to the school and bring all of that experience...that information and guidance to the students,” Montero said.  

“As a group, we can really come together and create a very complete picture for the student and help them to develop in the most holistic and absolute way...and I think that is a good thing, a wonderful thing.” 

So far, for Montero, the process of fitting into the puzzle has gone quite smoothly.  

Many of the faculty Montero already knew through other channels or from previous visits to CIM, including the 2023 Young Artist Piano Seminar, in which she was a guest. This time around, she was delighted to lodge with Antonio Pompa-Baldi, while she hunted for a place of her own.  

As for her students, Montero said she is very much enjoying the “intensive” work of getting to know them and figuring out the “toolkit” she can use to help each improve.  

“I think the relationship between a teacher and student is a very personal one,” Montero said. “It’s very much about the chemistry and understanding what the student needs.” 

It’s fair to wonder how Montero, a pianist with a robust concert and performing career, came to CIM. Why does a Venezuelan pianist with a global itinerary make time for students in Northeast Ohio?  

The answer is surprisingly simple: because she loves it. For her, teaching, especially at a place like CIM, isn’t a one-way street but rather a two-way exchange that benefits teacher and student alike. Even if the teacher is a veteran performer who would seem to have little to learn.  

“Joining CIM at this time of my life has been absolutely perfect timing,” Montero said.  

“I feel incredibly...excited to see not only how I can help my students develop...but also it’s interesting to me in my own process...to see how the teaching transforms the way that I also approach music.”  

Speaking of Montero’s approach to music – It’s pretty special. There are many, many pianists in the world, but none of them sound quite like Montero, irrespective of the piece. 

One of her greatest gifts, however, is for improvisation, for spinning music – often highly intricate and nuanced music – out of thin air, in the moment. It’s a skill Montero said will always have a role in her teaching at CIM, whether or not a student is interested in learning it as such.  

“Even if I don’t apply improvisation as a teaching tool...I do think there is great value in bringing the student to understand that there is a whole life and a whole world behind the written page,” she said.  

“It’s a way to see beyond...the score and to become an imagination machine...to also tap into our imagination and become the communicators we can become when we engage skill, work, and imagination...” 

CIM isn’t the only new entity in Montero’s life these days. In summer 2025, she’ll also take her talents, for the first time, to The Cliburn International Piano Competition, in Fort Worth, Texas.  

There she’ll have the dual pleasure of serving on the jury and as the event’s commissioned composer, author of a piece – a “great encore,” she said – all 30 contestants will be required to perform at some point. It’s a new role she’s already relishing as much as teaching at CIM. 

“I’m very honored to be doing that,” Montero said. “This is all part of this new phase of my life.”