Klaudia Montero (Argentina) was born in Buenos Aires, where she graduated composition and music theory at Conservatorio de Música Alberto Ginastera. Montero’s works have been performed across Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is a double laureate of the prestigious Latin Grammy in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition, for her Concerto for Violin and Strings (2014) and for Cuarteto para Buenos Aires (Quartet for Buenos Aires, 2016). Works by Montero have been commissioned and performed by the Chamber Orchestra of the Honourable Congress of the Nation, Paris Sinfonietta, American String Quartet, Orchestra of the University of Taipei, Prague Philharmonic, Valencia Symphony Orchestra, as well as festivals such as Cagliari International Music Festival (Italy), Festival Internacional de Música de La Habana (Cuba), Gitarrenland Festival (Germany), International Music Festival Series “From the End of the World” (Taiwan), Isla Verde Bronces (Argentina), etc. Her works have been published by Piles Editorial, Ut Orpheus, and Brotons & Mercadal. She is a jury member at several composition competitions and lecturer by invitation on the specificities of Argentine music. She is a member of the International Alliance for Women in Music. Since 2003, Montero has worked as a professor of composition at the Conservatorio Superior de la Música Salvador Seguí de Castellón in Valencia, Spain.

Concierto en blanco y negro(Concerto in Black and White) is a concerto in three movements for piano and string orchestra; its title is an allusion to the colours of the piano keyboard. The opening movement is the most intense and features a musical idea presented in two themes that alternate through a series of rhythmic and tonal contrasts, in which they are constantly present. The second movement, Quasi Passacaglia, is constructed on the basis of the eponymous form with a constantly repeated pattern in the bass, a superstructure in the variations, and the final consequent in the violoncello, the only accompaniment to the solo piano. The third movement has a ternary form, with an extremely rhythmic opening that grows into a lyrical middle section. This movement also features a cadenza that announces a return to the opening theme. Concierto en blanco y negro constitutes the final cycle of the composer’s sonorous explorations of string instruments and their combinations, which corresponds to her intention to emphasise in her works the aspect of colour, feelings, and images, which, united with music, make an impact on the listener’s imagination and perception.