Pianist Gabriela Montero, making up music as she goes

To understand Gabriela Montero, the Venezuelan pianist and rare classical improviser, one needs to begin in the time of giants.

When such masters as Bach, Beethoven and Brahms reigned, most serious composers played the piano and improvised. Pianists were expected to compose, composers were expected to perform, and everyone knew how to improvise — the spiritual bridge spanning those two realms of expression.

The 20th century began to canonize these composers, treating their works as untouchable, holy objects. Most classical performance today adheres to this tradition, celebrating the past by keeping it enshrined. There is nothing wrong with this reverent approach, but it's not the only way to celebrate the astonishing richness of this repertory.

Enter Gabriela Montero, the Lara Croft of classical pianists, a tomb raider who blasts open these sacrosanct temples to let in fresh air. Her improvisational CDs (like 2007's "Baroque") are best-sellers, and she devotes half of her concerts to "winging it" — after asking audience members to sing a tune. The strangest request? "Some ringtones that were not very musically interesting, but developed into wonderful fugues."

Montero burst onto the classical scene seemingly out of nowhere several years ago, when shows like "60 Minutes" and the "BBC News" ran features on her, with clips of her astonishing, on-the-spot music-making. Morley Safer asked her to riff on the theme from "Star Wars," "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and "Yesterday." Montero obliged by transforming John Williams into Bach, giving a Latin twist to the lullaby, and making McCartney sound like Beethoven.

Asked how she does it, her response in every interview is always a variation on the same: She doesn't know. Her improvisations are "subconscious" and "instinctive," driven by "feelings." Despite their quasi-mystical origins, Montero is not averse to pinning down some of her winged creations on the page. One of her projects in 2010 includes composing a world premiere for herself and the Baltic chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica.

Like Mozart, Montero was a toddler prodigy. At 18 months, she began to pick out tunes on a toy piano her grandmother had placed in her crib. At age 8 she moved to Miami with her family for a music scholarship. She took the Bronze Medal in the Chopin International Piano Competition in her 20s, and continued her training at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The narrow path Montero was on led inexorably to the concert stage.

Except that she was miserable playing the music, exactly as written, all the time. Taught to be ashamed of improvisation, she did it in secret. Trapped in a love-hate bind with her art, she even refused to touch a piano for long stretches of time. Seven years ago, on the verge of giving up playing again, Montero sought out the wisdom of Martha Argerich, the Argentine pianist widely considered one of the towering pianists of our age.

In every interview she gives, Montero credits "the Lioness" with changing her life, by openly recognizing her improvisational skills as a gift to share with the world. In an incredible display of the artistic generosity she is famous for, Argerich called everyone she knew. The concert invitations began pouring in.

Now, Montero makes music exactly as she lives her life, making it up as she goes along. Her success at doing so isn't all that surprising, considering how she's standing on the shoulders of giants.

Gabriela Montero will be visiting Seattle for the first time when she plays at Meany Hall as part of the UW President's Piano Series Wednesday.

Sumi Hahn: sumi@bewodo.org