Magnificent repertoire filled the Robert M. Kerr Performing Arts Center at Quartz Mountain on Saturday evening as Maestro Michael Palmer conducted the 23-piece all-string Quartz Mountain Music Festival Orchestra in five movements of “Holberg Suite, Op. 40” by Grieg. Los Romeros (the Romeros Guitar Quartet) then joined the orchestra in “Concerto in B Minor for Four Violins (adapted to guitar).”
Michael Palmer first played the Grieg composition with Los Romeros 40 years ago. “It has been a great privilege to have worked with the Romeros all these years on tours around the world,” he said, “and as the Romeros celebrate 50 years this year, this Celedonio Guitar Institute promises to be a worldwide event very quickly--and it is happening here.”
Los Romeros continued with “Concerto in B Minor for Four Violins” by Vivaldi, followed by encores for the enthusiastic crowd. The all-string orchestra completed the evening with the romantic “Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and Orchestra, Op. 47” by Elgar and the five movements of the exceptionally beautiful “String Serenade in E Major, Op. 22”--one of Dvorak’s great works portraying his love of his country, Czechoslovakia.
At the Friday evening concert, “Los Romeros and Friends,” the Quartz Mountain Music Festival Chamber Players’ string quartet thrilled the crowd with the four movements of “Quinten” in D Minor, Op. 76 by Haydn; and the chamber string octet played four movements of “Octet for Strings” in E-flat Major, Op. 20, by Mendelssohn. After intermission, the Romero Guitar Quartet (Celedonio’s sons, Pepe and Celin, and Celedonio’s grandsons, Celino and Lito) delighted the appreciative audience with a variety of exciting compositions for the guitar, including Pepe Romero’s “de Cadiz a la Habana.”
David Palmer, festival executive/artistic director, thanked the festival sponsors, friends of the festival, volunteers, in-kind contributors and home-stay hosts (coordinated by Nancy Cox of Altus) at a Thursday evening welcoming reception and dinner for the guest musicians and institute fellows in the Blair catering hall. “It has been a wonderful, wonderful adventure for the students at the guitar institute; it’s a dream come true for me. We look forward to starting several institutes of study in other communities around Quartz next year,” David Palmer said. “They will all happen at the same time.”
Granite Mayor Tony Scarborough enjoyed attending the festival and guitar institute. “We were so proud to have them hold the guitar institute in Granite this year; hopefully, we will have them back next year and do the same thing again,” Scarborough said. “It’s a big honor for us, and we’re just tickled to death to have them.”
Kenneth and Barbara Privett of Altus hosted Royce McLarry of Oklahoma City (principal violist with the Quartz Mountain Chamber Players and Orchestra and a regular with the festival) and Victor Costanzi of New York City, violinist. According to Barbara Privett, “This is our first year to host musicians, and they are delightful. They have their own area upstairs and can use our pool; it works out well.”
Linda Morris chaired the 1st Annual Oklahoma Outback Art Show at Granite’s Camp Kate Portwood in conjunction with the guitar institute. “According to the artists’ surveys, they all plan to return next year. They had a really hot time (100-degree temperature), and the foot traffic was slow enough that they got to know the people,” Morris said. “They sold quite a few pieces and loved the prize money, the music, food, onstage entertainment and the surroundings. It’s a good thing if you can please the artists. We had a lot of help from the people of Granite.”
Four drawing winners received a guitar painted by the Oklahoma State Reformatory inmates and autographed by the Romeros; the winners also had their pictures taken with the Romeros.
The Romeros faculty worked hard with the fellows, “but it didn’t seem so, because by the end of the day, I had more energy than at the beginning. It’s so wonderful to work with young people that share a great love for the same music and for the guitar,” Pepe Romero said. “We bring to them the work of my father, the work of the great guitarists of the past, and we see them take it and make it their own. They will go into the world and continue to share this knowledge and love for music. We know that my father’s spirit has been here in a beautiful and loving way, guiding the students and us as we teach. My father was my north star.”
Post a Comment
