“Mr. Romero has great agility, adequate power and an unusually large repertory of colors and dynamic levels. More important, these virtues evoked a sense of the music at hand rather than mere piano techniques” – The New York Times
“The playing is authoritative incontrovertibly Beethovenian in re-creating the composer’s style, technically immaculate and compelling in the extreme” – The Los Angeles Times
More about Mr. Romero:
Concert pianist Gustavo Romero is internationally renowned for his exceptional technical brilliance and interpretive depth and has gained an acclaimed reputation for his commitment to in-depth exploration of a wide variety of composers.
A native of San Diego with heritage in Guadalajara, Mexico, Mr. Romero discovered his love and gift for the piano at the age of five and gave his first public performances at the age of 10, when he also won his first piano competition. At 13, he performed with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Rudolf Serkin recognized his exceptional talent, and at the age of 14 he attended the Juilliard School.
Mr. Romero has won many prizes including first prize in the prestigious Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland, The Avery Fisher Career Grant and The Musical America Young Artist Award.
He has performed with the world’s leading orchestras including: The New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, The Boston Pops Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Honolulu Symphony, New World Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Radio France Orchestra, Philharmonia Hungarica, New Japan Philharmonic, Shanghai Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic, Russian Symphony Orchestra, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Liège Philharmonic, a concert internationally televised from the United Nations.
For the past 24 years, Mr. Romero has performed a summer series of concerts in La Jolla, California, sponsored by the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library featuring music of one composer each year. He has presented the works of Chopin, Bach, Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Händel, Liszt, Debussy, Gershwin, Ravel and Rachmaninoff, the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart, the complete four-hand and two-piano works of Mozart and Clementi and piano concerti of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Mendelssohn conducting from the keyboard.
In the 2022/23 season, Mr.Romero celebrated the 225th anniversary of the birth of Schubert presenting the completed piano sonatas as well as celebrating the 150 anniversary of the birth of Rachmaninoff with all Rachmaninoff programs.
In the 2020/21 season, Mr. Romero focused on presenting the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven celebrating the 250th anniversary of his birth from 2020 with recital tours in South Africa and the USA.
In the 2017/18 season Mr. Romero focused on the piano works of Enrique Granados, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. Concert tours in 2017/18 included Italy, United Kingdom, Ireland, Vietnam, Taiwan, South Africa and the United States.
Past seasons have taken him to France, England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, the Czech Republic, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, Austria, Bulgaria, Mexico and all across the United States. Mr. Romero has performed in some of the leading concert halls of the world, including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Centre, The Barbican in London, The Berlin Philharmonie, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, The Great Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow and Salle Gaveau in Paris.
NPR, BBC Radio and Radio France have featured him. The Snapshots Music and Art Foundation produced a feature film about his life and artistry in 2012: Portrait in Piano.
His recordings include works by Chopin, Mompou, Debussy, Albeniz, Scarlatti and the five Beethoven concerti with the English Chamber Orchestra.
Mr. Romero is a Professor of Piano at the University of North Texas.
