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Summer Festival 2010 with Gustavo Romero, piano
The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library’s Summer Festival has become a cherished tradition in San Diego. The 2009 festival concluded with a rousing series of encores and standing ovations on July 26. The 2010 Athenaeum Summer Festival, the twelfth, has been announced.
July 11, 18, & 25, and August 1, 2010
Frédéric Chopin
“Romero seizes live music and composers by the lapels.” —Cathy
Robbins, Voice of San Diego
Gustavo Romero
In the spring of 1976, a talented young San Diego pianist gave his first public performance as part of the Monday noon Mini-Concert series at the Athenaeum. Gustavo Romero was only eleven years old at the time, but had already established a reputation for his extraordinary talent and musicianship.
After that early concert, the pianist performed with the New York Philharmonic at the age of 13, the Boston Pops Orchestra at 16, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at 18. After graduating from the Juilliard School of Music, Romero was the 1989 winner of the prestigious Clara Haskil Piano Competition in Switzerland, and this opened Europe to him.
Since then, the pianist has played with other leading orchestras including Radio France Orchestra, Philharmonia Hungarica, and the Liege Philharmonic, with which he appeared on tour and in a concert internationally telecast from the United Nations. He has also appeared at major festivals including New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Montpellier Festival in France, and the Montreux Festival in Switzerland.
As a recitalist, Romero is in demand throughout the world. Since 1999, the Athenaeum has presented Romero’s “cycles,” devoted to specific composers, for which he is now widely known. Since Gustavo had memorized all of Chopin’s music, Erika Torri saw the opportunity to create a signature event to commemorate the library’s 100th anniversary. Following the Athenaeum anniversary performance, Gustavo took his ambitious Chopin series to New York’s Alice Tully Hall, where he headlined a three-hour marathon, featuring over two dozen American pianists and honoring Chopin's 150th anniversary.
Athenaeum Summer Festivals
1999 Chopin
2000 Bach
2001-02 Beethoven
2003-04 Mozart
2005 Schubert
2006 Schumann
2007 Brahms
2008 Ten Years, Seven Composers, One Pianist
2009 Haydn and Mendelssohn
These concerts are made possible in part, thanks to funding from the City of San Diego through a program managed by the Commission for Arts and Culture and the County of San Diego.