Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez September 29, 2012

Lakewood Cultural Center presents

Pianist Gabriela Martinez

"...compelling, elegant, and incisive" – NY Times

The Lakewood Cultural Center presents Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29 in the intimate 316-seat theater at 470 S. Allison Parkway at Wadsworth Boulevard and West Alameda Avenue. Tickets are $20 and are available by calling 303-987-7845, going online to www.Lakewood.org/CulturalCenter or visiting the Lakewood Cultural Center Box Office. Senior, student and group discounts are available. There is plenty of free, well-lit parking on-site.

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). Her program includes the RachmaninoffMoment Musicaux, OP. 16, Nos. 1 and 4, Beethoven Seven Bagatelles, OP. 33, Szymanowski Variations in B-flat minor, OP. 3 and Franz Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor.

Born in Caracas in 1984, Martinez began her piano studies with her mother, Alicia Gaggioni, and later 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.

Since her orchestral debut at age 7, Martinez has performed both as a soloist and chamber musician in concert halls throughout the U.S. and worldwide including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall (New York); Davies Hall (San Francisco); Bass Hall (Fort Worth); Palace of Versailles (Paris); Grosses Festpielhaus (Salzburg); Semperoper (Dresden); and Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen). Her supreme artistry led to a 2011 invitation to step in for renowned pianist Leon Fleisher, making her Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Ravinia Festival debuts. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with numerous musicians and ensembles including Itzhak Perlman and the Takacs, Biava and Calder quartets. She has performed under the batons of conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Itzhak Perlman, Lawrence Foster, James Gaffigan, Dirk Brosse, Klauspeter Seibel, Giordano Bellincampi, Diego Matheuz, Christian Vasquez, Guillermo Figueroa, David Machado, Anne Manson, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Egmon Colomer and Pedro and Cristobal Halffter, among others.

Her wide-ranging career includes world premieres of new music, live performance broadcasts and interviews on TV and radio including MDR Kultur (Germany), NHK (Japan), Radio France (France), RAI (Italy), Deutsche Welle (Germany), National Public Radio, CNN, PBS and 60 Minutes.

Committed to arts advocacy, she was a fellow in "The Academy," a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute and New York City Public Schools. She has been a Career Grant recipient from the Bagby Foundation for the musical arts since 2002. In 2008, she was appointed concert artist faculty at Kean University in New Jersey.

Martinez has been the recipient of 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.

The 2012-2013 Lakewood Cultural Center Presents Season is generously supported by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), with appreciation to the citizens of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, Sheraton Denver West and The Denver Post Community, improving and enriching the lives of those in our community.