Feel all the passion and sizzle of Latin America as NAC Orchestra Creative Partner Gabriela Montero performs her Latin Concerto, “a portrait of Latin America in all its splendour.” 

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero’s skill and virtuosity at the piano borders on the supernatural. Her mastery of the classical repertoire and her ability to improvise on any musical theme any time makes her one of the most sought-after guest performers in the world. Montero’s life-affirming Latin Concerto, which she composed in 2016, is infused with the vibrant energy and passion of the many cultures of South America, but also the sorrow and struggles of nations and people who “are not always agents of their own destiny.” 

Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé tells the story of the innocent love between Daphnis the goatherd, and Chloé the shepherdess. Ravel composed the score as a commission for Ballets Russes, but this lush, colourful masterpiece for orchestra is performed most often on its own, without the ballet.

Peruvian-born composer Jimmy López Bellido is happiest when he is “able to surprise” with his music, and he has been doing so on the world stage for more than two decades. When he moved to Finland at the age of 21 to study music, López Bellido discovered Finland’s national epic story, the Kalevala. His Aino is a tone poem that tells a story inspired by the fourth poem of the Kalevala. In it, a young woman’s brother loses a battle to his rival and promises her in marriage to the much older man.