Athenaeum Summer Festival 2012
with pianist Gustavo Romero

Gustavo Romero

All concerts will begin at 4 p.m. with dinners immediately following in a private home or at the Athenaeum Music & Art Library. Concerts take place at The Neurosciences Institute, located at 10640 John Jay Hopkins Dr., La Jolla, CA 92037.

Sundays at 4 PM
July 8, 15, 22 & 29, 2012
Call (858) 454-5872 to reserve

Series tickets (All four performances):
Keyboard - $152 member/$172 nonmember
Non-keyboard - $112 member/$132 nonmember
With Dinner - $600

Single Performance Tickets:
Keyboard - $40 member/$45 nonmember
Non-keyboard - $30 member/$35 nonmember
With Dinner - $160

“Romero seizes live music and composers by the lapels." - Cathy Robbins, Voice of San Diego

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 Beethoven

2002 Beethoven

2003 Mozart

2004 Mozart

2005 Schubert

2006 Schumann

2007 Brahms

2008 Ten Years, Seven Composers, One Pianist

2009 Haydn and Mendelssohn

2010 Frédéric François Chopin

2011 Franz Liszt

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.

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