Pepe Romero Announced As Guest Artist For Music Festival

The Hamptons Festival of Music (TH·FM) has announced that Pepe Romero, the world-renowned classical guitarist, will join the festival’s inaugural season at LTV Studios in Wainscott this September as the featured soloist.

Romero will be performing in recital on Saturday, September 10. Then on Sunday, September 11, he will return to take the stage with longtime friend and collaborator, Maestro Michael Palmer, artistic director of TH·FM, in a full symphony orchestra concert featuring the iconic Concerto Aranjuez, composed by Romero’s mentor, Joaquin Rodrigo.

Maestros Romero and Palmer have concertized together for over 50 years, performing at some of the world’s most recognized concert halls.

“I am overcome with joy to participate in the new Festival TH·FM. Michael Palmer and I have journeyed together through many musical adventures,” said Romero. “They were all magical and wonderful. Michael Palmer is one of the great conductors of all times. I cannot wait to experience the extraordinary music-making that awaits us in the Hamptons.”

“I am honored that my dear friend, Pepe Romero, will be joining the musicians of The New American Sinfonietta and me to launch TH FM this coming September,” said Palmer. “What better way to demonstrate our commitment to bringing world-class musicians to the Hamptons than to have my longtime friend with me on stage, to bring his warmth and great artistry to the audience and supporters of TH·FM.”

One of his generation’s most celebrated and versatile musicians, the Spanish-born guitarist Pepe Romero has enjoyed a varied and illustrious career. He has made more than 60 recordings, including over 30 concertos.

He has appeared as a featured soloist with the world’s greatest orchestras and ensembles, collaborating with the most celebrated conductors. Pepe Romero has given premieres of works by some of the finest composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Joaquín Rodrigo, Federico Moreno Torroba, Lorenzo Palomo, Padre Francisco de Madina, Ernesto Cordero and Celedonio Romero have written compositions for him.

Also a champion of earlier music, he has revived pieces by Sor, Giuliani, Molino, Carulli, Mertz, Boccherini and others. Among other honors, Pepe Romero has been knighted into the Order of Isabel la Católica, awarded an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Victoria as well as the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Premio Andalucía de Música, the highest recognition given by his native land for contribution to the arts. He recently was awarded the Medalla de Honor from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Granada for his lifelong achievement in performance and pedagogy.

Michael Palmer (born May 8, 1945, Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American orchestral conductor.

Palmer began his professional career at age 21 when he became Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1967, under its legendary Music Director Robert Shaw, and was later named Associate Conductor. In that capacity, he founded and became the first director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra in 1974. In 1975 he was one of the first young American conductors selected as an EXXON/Arts Endowment Conductor by the National Endowment for the Arts. He left the ASO in 1977 to become Music Director of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, followed by the posts of Music Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the American Sinfonietta, with which he toured Europe for 10 consecutive seasons. Since 1993 he has served as founder and artistic director of the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington. This year will be his final season as artistic director, after which he will become its conductor laureate.

Palmer also was guest conductor for three seasons for the Houston Symphony Orchestra and co-principal guest conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra and has made international appearances as a conductor in Canada, Europe and China. He has also held academic conducting posts as director of orchestras for Wichita State University and is currently a distinguished professor of orchestral studies at Georgia State University.

For more information about TH·FM, visit thehamptonsfestivalofmusic.com.

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