Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra will conclude its 2015-2016 season Saturday, April 30th, with A Latin Flavor. The concert event will start at 6:00 pm, when doors open to Twichell Auditorium’s lobby for a pre-concert reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvres.
The pre-concert reception will continue with “Classical Conversations” by Chris Vaneman, 6:15 pm to 6:45 pm. The 7:00 pm concert will feature world-renowned soloist Pepe Romero. Tickets are $21-$41 each and can be purchased by telephone — (864) 596-9724 — or in person at Twichell’s box office Monday-Friday at Converse College. Tickets are also available anytime online at SpartanburgPhilharmonic.org.
Romero is one of the greatest classical guitarists living today. From humble beginnings, Romero was born in war-torn Málaga, Spain, at the end of WWII. Through desperate economic hardships, Romero’s parents raised the family with a passion for and understanding of music that transcended the profound misery that surrounded them. At age seven, Romero first took to the stage at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Sevilla, Spain. By 1967, he, his father, and his two brothers appeared on the Ed Sullivan show as Los Romeros guitar quartet. Since then, Romero has been honored by kings, heads of state, and major institutions around the world as both soloist and quartet member. He has performed at the White House; the Vatican for Pope John Paul II; for Prince Charles, Prince of Wales; and King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia of Spain – to name a few.Romero will perform the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo, one of the most popular and most recorded guitar concertos in existence. The piece has been used on countless movie soundtracks; was adapted by Miles Davis in 1960, later becoming a jazz standard; and was Michelle Kwan’s accompaniment when she won her fifth World Figure Skating Championship.
Maestro Sarah Ioannides will open the Spanish- and Latin American-inspired concert with the overture to Mozart’s famous opera Don Giovanni, a work set in Sevilla, Spain (the city that witnessed the premiere performance of a young Romero). As the story goes, though he had composed the piece in his head, Mozart only finished the overture the day of the premiere performance of the opera. The players received the music, ink still wet, only moments before the curtain rose. Yet, it was a resounding success, and the opera is still considered one of the greatest operas ever written.
Following the overture, the orchestra will perform by Sinfonietta no. 1 by Brazilian-born composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Villa-Lobos dedicated the work to the memory of Mozart, basing many of the themes on the older composer’s works.
The concert will conclude with Maniel de Falla’s Three Cornered Hat Suite no. 1. This humorous collection of dances tells the story of a miller’s wife, who dodges the ludicrous amorous advances of a pompous magistrate, who wears a three-cornered hat as a symbol of status.
For more information, please call SPO at (864) 948-9020.