Like Mozart, Montero was a toddler prodigy. At 18 months, she began to pick out tunes on a toy piano her grandmother had placed in her crib. At age 8 she moved to Miami with her family for a music scholarship. She took the Bronze Medal in the Chopin International Piano Competition in her 20s, and continued her training at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The narrow path Montero was on led inexorably to the concert stage.