It seems the Athenaeum is always celebrating some kind of milestone
these days, but it’s still hard to believe that this will
be our tenth Summer Festival with Gustavo Romero. As many of you
will remember, the tradition began with a six-concert Chopin cycle,
marking the Athenaeum’s 100th anniversary. The concerts, scheduled
to be held at the Athenaeum, sold out so quickly that two of them
were moved to The Neurosciences Institute to accommodate larger
audiences. Met with tremendous enthusiasm, the Athenaeum Summer
Festival became a tradition, and each year Romero, a longtime friend
of the Athenaeum, has devoted himself to the in-depth study of one
composer’s repertoire, with some composers spanning multiple
summers.
This year’s festival will be a look back at the work of the
seven composers we have celebrated: Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart,
Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. This will be a chance to reflect
on happy memories of past festival highlights, or for newcomers,
a chance to experience a broad range of the very best in classical
music for piano. In addition, one of the programs will include a
trio, a quartet and a quintet.
Tickets are on sale now, by phone or in person at the Athenaeum.
In addition, tickets may be purchased for dinners following the
concerts, at private homes or at the Athenaeum.
Athenaeum Summer Festival 2008 Program
Sunday, July 6
Bach - Busoni 2 chorale preludes
Schubert - 4 Impromptus op. 90
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Chopin 4 Ballades
Sunday, July 13
Schumann - Arabesque
Mozart - Fantasy in D Minor K. 397
Beethoven - Sonata op. 53 "Waldstein"
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Chopin - 4 Scherzos
Sunday, July 20
Mozart - Piano quartet in G Minor K. 478
Brahms - Trio in B Major
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Schumann - Piano quintet
Sunday, July 27
Beethoven - Sonata in C Major op. 2 no. 3
Schubert - 4 Impromptus op. 142
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Mozart - Sonata in a Major K. 331
Beethoven - Sonata in F Minor, op. 57 "Appassionata"
Ticket Prices
Series - Keyboard View : Athenaeum Member: $132
Nonmember: $152
Series - Non-keyboard View: Athenaeum Member: $92
Nonmember: $112
Individual Concerts - Keyboard View: Athenaeum Member: $35
Nonmember: $40
Individual Concerts - Non-Keyboard View: Athenaeum Member: $25
Nonmember: $30
4 Concert Series with 4 Dinners: $550
Individual Concerts with Dinners: $150
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
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. |
