Aldemaro Romero

Date of birth March 12, 1928

Died September 15, 2007 (age 79)

Biography

(born in Valencia, Carabobo state, March 12, 1928 – September 15, 2007), was a Venezuelan pianist, composer, arranger and conductor.

Maestro Aldemaro Romero was a prolific composer, creating a wide variety of music, such as Caribbean, jazz, Venezuelan waltzes, and including works for orchestra, orchestra and soloist, orchestra and choir, chamber music, and even large-scale symphonic works. .

He began his musical studies with his father, Rafael Romero, who was director of the Yaracuy State Band. At the age of 9, he was already an experienced singer and the first children’s radio announcer on the station ”La Voz de Carabobo”.

In 1941 he moved to Caracas and worked as a pianist in nightclubs and in dance bands. In 1949 he traveled to Cuba, and then to New York. In 1952 he returned to Caracas and established his own dance band. The previous year he signed a contract with the transnational record company RCA Victor to record with a studio orchestra a successful series of albums in LP format called ”Dinner In…”, offering popular Latin music. The first and most successful of these albums was Dinner in Caracas, with which he broke all sales records up to then in the South American record market. Then, he recorded numerous albums in different countries. In the United States, his ability as an arranger and conductor led him to collaborate with popular orchestras and singers, such as Dean Martin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Stan Kenton, Machito (musician)|Machito and Tito Puente, among others. He also traveled extensively, developing his art in numerous countries: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, France, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Russia, Egypt, and Japan.

Aldemaro Romero was the creator in the sixties of a new form of Venezuelan music performance, known as Onda Nueva, derived from joropo and influenced by jazz. He also had an important role in the field of Symphonic music. In 1979 he founded the Caracas Philharmonic Orchestra. He also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Romanian Radio and Television Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

He was the father of Aldemaro Romero Jr., who is a renowned biologist in the United States and a leader in cave fish studies and marine mammal research.

In recent years he was semi-retired, so his recording activity had ceased. He died when the state of his health became complicated, on the morning of September 15, 2007.