Maestro Romero delighted with the piano and also shared his knowledge

Jorge Romero, an Argentinean pianist who gave a recital during the solemn session of the University of Azuay on April 20, offered two days before Master class in the auditorium of the University for the students and piano teachers of the National Conservatory of Music "José María Rodríguez".

Romero began his musical studies at the 5 years. He studied piano at the Conservatory of Music of Córdoba and composition at the National University of Córdoba. He won a Fullbright scholarship to study a master's degree at Ball State University under the direction of Robert Palmer. He is currently developing his musical career in France, where he is a professor at the École Koening-American Conservatory of Paris.

Why do you think there is a different way of seeing the musician in Latin America and in Europe?

It is a matter of cultural evolution. In Europe there is a whole history of 300, 400 years of evolution of music where musicians were paid to play and compose.

Music in Latin America evolved in other ways and with our own rhythms and needs to use them at parties or events, but in a more informal way. It took a long time for us to have orchestras, theaters and other things that in Europe had been around for a long time.

Which artist has been your greatest influence?

What influenced me when I was little was rather that I listened to a lot of music, mainly classical music. At that time there were many renowned pianists who were well known as Arthur Rubinstein, my father had several records of him and I listened to them, at that moment my dream was to play like Rubinstein.

So, little by little, I began to hear compositions by Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, different composers of universal history. I felt very good listening to them play and I wanted to do it too.

Do you think that people are born with the talent to be able to make music or is the practice more important?

There is a human tradition of imagining things, and we think that people have a gift and do it magically, of course there are people who have more talent than others. But, from what I have observed in my life and I have also read, finally many people that we believe do not have as much talent have managed to be as much or more than the people who have the gift simply because they work.

Mozart, one of the most extraordinary characters in history, said that you had to work hard. He, the most talented, spent hours and hours practicing. It is true that there is talent, but the question is what do you do with it. What is better is the combination of talent and work, a lot of work.     

How many hours do you practice every day?

Those necessary. There is a mean for an instrumentalist, it depends on the instrument, a pianist usually plays more hours than someone with a wind instrument for physical effort, but about five or six hours a day, there are people who do much more.

Can you live on music?

Like all races, what counts is to love what you do and above all to feel good about what you do. If you want to be in the world of music, you have a sensitivity for music and it makes you happy, I do not hesitate a moment to motivate that student.

There are means to live, because it is not only the scene, there is teaching, research. Music has evolved in many fields, there is musicology, theory, technology that is applied in sound treatment studios. The point is in wanting what is done, in knowing how to live it.