For Immediate Release
Contact: Cohn Dutcher Associates
Lois Cohn, 917.339.7187, lcohn@cohndutcher.com
Dan Dutcher, 917.339.7157, ddutcher@cohndutcher.com
Katie Barna, 917.339.7189, kbarna@cohndutcher.com

CARAMOOR INTERNATIONAL
MUSIC FESTIVAL
PRESENTS PIANIST
GABRIELA MONTERO
THURSDAY, JULY 5 AT 7:30 PM 

Katonah, New York - Gabriela Montero, the internationally-celebrated pianist seen earlier this year in a profile on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes, will make her Caramoor International Music Festival debut on Thursday, July 5 at 7:30 pm in the Spanish Courtyard.  The program will include works by Schumann, Bach transcriptions, and Montero?s signature impromptu improvisations.

"Gabriela Montero possesses the technical facility and emotional depth of a great classical pianist," said Michael Barrett, Chief Executive and General Director of Caramoor. "However, it's her uncanny ability to improvise in any style that sets her apart as a true genius."

In a recent review in the Boston Globe of Montero's appearance with the Boston Philharmonic, critic Jeremy Eichler wrote, "Word is spreading quickly about the encore improvisations that have become Montero?s calling card.  She typically solicits tunes from the audience and then spins out elaborate riffs right on the spot. On Sunday, Montero played three such encores.  The most fun was when someone near the front row shouted for 'La Cucaracha.'  Montero said 'That's a great one!" and then promptly took this humble folk song about a cockroach on a grand stroll, splicing it into music that resembled Bach's Goldberg Variations, dropping it by a tango club, schooling it in ragtime, and on and on."

Improvisation plays as important a part in Gabriela Montero's life as it did for Bach and Mozart and, to show the link, her latest CD, Bach and Beyond, is a disc of improvisations on themes by Bach.  Born in Caracas, Venezuela, she gave her first public performance at the age of five. At age eight she made her concerto debut with the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra conducted by Jose Antonio Abreu and was granted a scholarship from the Venezuelan government to study in the United States.  At twelve, she won the Baldwin National Competition and AMSA Young Artist International Piano Competition, performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  More recent among her many international prizes is the Bronze Medal from the 13th International Chopin Piano Competition.  She has appeared with orchestras across the world from South America and the U.S., Europe, to Japan and the Far East. Recently, she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel.

Gabriela Montero's performance is part of this summer's Pianists in Recital series at Caramoor, four evenings featuring piano recitalists who possess unique musical voices and reputations for extraordinary commitment to musicality and intimate communication with an audience. Also playing in this series will be Christopher Taylor on Sunday, July 15 and Mitsuko Uchida on Friday, August 3 and Sunday, August 5, the final performance of this year's Caramoor International Music Festival.

TICKETS
Tickets for Gabriela Montero's recital on Thursday, July 5 are $25 and $15 and may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org.

ABOUT CARAMOOR
Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures.  Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world.  Their musical evenings were the seeds of the International Music Festival today. Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor -  the house with its art collection; the gardens; and the musical programs on summer evenings -  the Rosens established a Foundation to open Caramoor to the public in perpetuity.

Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years. During those years, she expanded the Music Festival: the Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today. Under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.

Caramoor is a Garden of Great Music. "We invite people to come early, explore our beautiful grounds, take a tour of the House Museum, visit our gift shop, enjoy a pre-concert picnic and discover beautiful music in a relaxed setting," advises Paul Rosenblum, Caramoor's Managing Director. With its unique heritage, Caramoor remains a place where magical summer days and nights are shared and enjoyed by thousands. "Caramoor is the loveliest Festival of them all." - The New York Times

Art and Gardens
Concerts take place in two outdoor theaters - the large, acoustically superb Venetian Theater, and the more intimate, romantic Spanish Courtyard.  Caramoor is more than just music - there is beauty at every turn.  The House Museum, the former summer home of Caramoor's founders, Lucie and Walter Rosen, contains a vast collection of Renaissance, 18th-century and Eastern art objects - furniture, tapestries, sculpture, paintings, textiles, porcelain and jade. There are entire rooms that were imported from European palaces and villas.  In fact, Caramoor is one of just five mansions in the country that incorporate entire rooms into its collection, twenty of which are open to the public.  On Thursdays and Fridays, Afternoon Tea is served in the Summer Dining Room, overlooking the charming Spanish Courtyard.

Caramoor's gardens are also well worth the visit. Nine unique perennial gardens - including a Sense Circle for the visually handicapped, a Butterfly Garden, a Medieval Mount and two gardens whose special characteristics are enjoyed primarily at night - may be seen on a guided tour or on one?s own.

House Museum
Guided tours of the House Museum are provided from Wednesday through Sunday, 1-4 p.m., with the last tour at 3 p.m. On Saturdays during the Festival, tours are given from 1-5 p.m., with the last tour at 4 p.m. Tickets are $10 (children 16 and under free).

Getting to Caramoor
Caramoor is easy to get to by car, mass transportation or the Caramoor Caravan.

From Manhattan, take the Caramoor Caravan and ride comfortably in a luxurious, air-conditioned coach.  Round trip service is $22 and is available for all Saturday and Sunday performances during the Festival.  The Caravan departs from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Upper West Side and East Side locations. Call the Box Office (914.232.1252) for further information and reservations.

By train, take the Harlem Division of the Metro-North Railroad to Katonah, New York. Taxi service from the station to Caramoor (5 minutes away) is available.

By car from the West Side of Manhattan and New Jersey, take the Saw Mill River Parkway north to Katonah.  Exit at Route 35/Cross River.  Turn right, and at the first traffic light make a right turn onto Route 22 south. Travel 1.9 miles to the junction of Girdle Ridge Road. Follow the signs to Caramoor.  (For detailed directions call 914.232.5035 and press 2, or online at caramoor.org).

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

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_____________________________________________________________________________

Gabriela Montero

July 5                         Gabriela Montero, piano
Thursday, 7:30 pm 
Spanish Courtyard    Program:
$25, $15   
                                  Bach, arr. Busoni      Chaconne (from Partita No. 2 in D minor for Violin), BWV 1004
                                  Schumann              Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Florestan und Eusebius, Op. 11
                                  Free Improvisation
                                  Chopin                        Polonaise No. 6 in A-flat Major, Op. 53
   
                       _____________________________________________________________________________

Tickets may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org.

Press Tickets:
Katie Barna
917.339.7189
kbarna@cohndutcher.com