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Our most-fun pianist is getting married

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norman lebrecht

October 08, 2013

The first time, we played the Beatles in a Steinway showroom.

The second time we met, we demolished a bottle of red at the National Portrait Gallery. She assured me she wasn’t playing that night.

Every get-together with Gabriela Montero is full of fun and laughter. Then she introduced me to the love of her life – an Irish opera singer with a dash of Hollywood on his c.v. Lovely guy, Sam McElroy.

Guess what? They got engaged yesterday and they’re posting the banns on Slipped Disc.

Gabi’s version: A few days ago, the most wonderful man I know, asked me to marry him. I can’t imagine my life without him. The ups and downs, without him, would be unbearable. I am a lucky girl and although I haven’t been in the best of moods lately given everything that has been happening, this event has brought much needed sunshine to my heart..

Sam’s story:

Three years ago I went, with 10,000 others, to hear Gabriela play a concert at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel. We didn’t know each other then.The next day, I ran into her in more banal circumstances – at a Starbucks on Melrose Avenue! We got talking, and after three more years of talking, and laughing, and traveling the world, and making music, and listening to her make music, and watching addictive HBO shows together on planes, and figuring out how to support her in raising two girls while she navigates a mad concert schedule, I have asked her to marry me.

She said yes!