Lauded by the New York Times as “compelling, elegant, and incisive,” Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez is quickly establishing a reputation and earning praise as a versatile artist who combines “panache and poetry” (Dallas Morning News) with a “sense of grace and clarity” (The Star Ledger).
Ms. Martinez has already amassed an impressive list of recital, concerto, and chamber music performance credits. Since making her orchestral debut at age 7, Ms. Martinez has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Houston, Chicago, New Jersey, Fort Worth, Pacific and San Francisco Symphonies, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, MDR Rundfunkorchester, Nurnberger Philharmoniker, Symphonisches Staatsorchester Halle, Tivoli Philharmonic, and regularly performs with the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with numerous musicians and ensembles including Itzhak Perlman, and the Takacs, and Calder quartets. Ms. Martinez has performed under the batons of conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Lawrence Foster, James Gaffigan, Dirk Brosse, Klauspeter Seibel, Giordano Bellincampi, Diego Matheuz, Christian Vasquez, Guillermo Figueroa, David Machado, Susanna Maelkki, Andrew Manze, Matthias Pintscher, Anne Manson, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Egmon Colomer, Pedro and Cristobal Halffter, among others.
Ms. Martinez has performed at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall in New York; Davies Hall in San Francisco; Bass Hall in Fort Worth; Palace of Versailles in Paris; Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg; Semperoper in Dresden; Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen; the Verbier Festival; Ravinia Festival; Dresden Music Festival; Snow and Symphony Festival in St. Moritz; Festival de Radio France et Montpellier; Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto; the New Hampshire Music Festival; the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center; and the Tokyo International Music Festival. She has performed both as soloist and chamber musician in over 50 concert halls in the U.S. and Germany, as well as in Salzburg, Copenhagen, Paris, The Netherlands, St. Moritz, Verbier, Sendai, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Montpellier, Rome, Venice, London, Spoleto, Brussels, Caracas, and Bogota.
Ms. Martinez has won numerous national and international prizes and awards. Her most recent accomplishments include first prize and audience award at the Anton G. Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Dresden. She was a semifinalist at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where she also received a Jury Discretionary Award. Ms. Martinez’s wide-ranging career includes world premieres of new music, live performance broadcasts, and interviews on TV and radio. Her performances have been featured on MDR Kultur (Germany), NHK (Japan), Radio France (France), RAI (Italy), Deutsche Welle (Germany), WQXR, WNYC, National Public Radio, CNN, PBS, 60 minutes, ABC, From the Top (USA), and numerous television and radio stations in Venezuela.
Born in Caracas in 1984, Ms. Martinez began her piano studies with her mother Alicia Gaggioni, and studied with Miyoko Lotto at the Perlman Music Program. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School as a full scholarship student of Yoheved Kaplinsky, and her doctorate with Professor Marco Antonio de Almeida in Halle, Germany. Committed to arts advocacy, Ms. Martinez was a member of the fellowship "The Academy- a Program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute.” In 2008, Ms. Martinez was appointed Concert Artist Faculty at Kean University in New Jersey.
Website: www.gabrielamartinezpiano.com/