Seth Montfort

Seth Montfort took his first piano lesson when his brother, Matthew Montfort, had homework to do and couldn’t make his scheduled lesson. It was Matthew’s plan to get out of his piano lessons so he could pursue the guitar. Seth Montfort immediately excelled at the piano. He won his first contest at 11 performing ragtime by Scott Joplin. At 15 he became serious about classical music after attending a Denver Symphony Concert at which he heard his first concerto. He decided to learn a concerto himself and enter The Denver Symphony’s Concerto Competition. He won, and thus months after discovering what a concerto was he made his own concerto debut at 16 performing Ravel’s jazz-inspired Concerto for the Left Hand with the Denver Symphony. He was given a standing ovation from an audience of over 1,000 people! He has performed over 1,000 solo recitals and over 100 performances as a soloist with orchestra in concerti by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Saint Saens, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Delius, Scriabin, Ravel, and Gershwin. Some of the orchestras he has made solo appearances with include the Denver Symphony, Jefferson Symphony, Redwood Symphony, North Bay Philharmonic, Kensington Symphony, Diablo Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra and San Francisco Concerto Orchestra. He has won 12 prizes in local, National and International competitions and has performed in most of the Bay area’s biggest halls. He is the Artistic Director of The San Francisco Concerto Orchestra. The Orchestra ranges is made up of professionals from The San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet Orchestras and other local orchestras. It has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “solidly impressive” and by the San Jose Mercury News as “stellar.” As a composer, Montfort is currently finishing an hour long Old World Piano Symphony and a two-hour long Aztec Piano Symphony. Part of his Aztec Piano Symphony was premiered as a work-in-progress with solo and principal dancers from San Francisco Ballet and Opera during Montfort’s residency at the Djerassi Foundation artists’ colony. The work was begun there in collaboration with Victoria Morgan, former Ballet Mistress of The San Francisco Opera.