By Mark Taylor

Music fans can now tune into a special video performance featuring some SFCM faculty. Debuting on December 21st, the Virtual Guitar Orchestra presents the Los Romeros 60th Anniversary Video featuring the new Malagueña de Jotro written for the occasion by Maestro Pepe Romero. SFCM Guitar faculty members Marc Teicholz and Sérgio Assad are part of the project. Assad is also an Opus 3 Artist, the managment company aquired by SFCM in 2020.

Los Romeros is credited with creating the classical guitar quartet, and is still, after 60 years, one of the most notable guitar quartets in the world today. Made up of only Romeros, “The  Royal Family of the Guitar,” was founded in 1960 by Celedonio Romero, the father and guitar teacher of his three sons Angel, Celin, and Pepe. 

Since the pandemic there have been several virtual guitar projects that both Assad and Teicholz have been a part of. “I have known Pepe over the years and he is a very warm-hearted, spirited person. I feel privileged to know him and I wanted to contribute in this very small way to show my appreciation,” Marc Teicholz said. The musician used a special guitar for the video that was made for him by Pepe’s son, Pepe Romero Jr. “The guitar has a very warm, old-fashioned Spanish sound that I really love. So I have a bit of a personal connection to this remarkable family that is meaningful to me,” Teicholz added. 

Teicholz first heard about the project from lifelong guitar player and collector L. John Harris, who previously made a documentary about the Romeros with PBS in 2000. His unique collection of 40 vintage classical and flamenco guitars from the 19th and 20th centuries was donated to SFCM in 2020. Harris is now the curator of the collection. He was first inspired to build his collection by the Romero family. “I bought a guitar from Angel Romero in 1995 and met the entire family in Del Mar and heard instruments from their amazing collection. That's when I contracted the collector bug,” Harris said. In homage to Los Romeros, the Harris Guitar Collection is a sponsor of the Romero’s 60th anniversary video and performance.

Harris hopes students learn from and appreciate the history behind the sound of the iconic guitars in the collection, several of which came out of the Romero collection. “When students, most of whom play very modern instruments, first encounter the collection's rare old guitars at my sessions in the collection's display alcove at the Ann Getty Center, it is often a revelation to them. It's not that the HGC instruments are necessarily better than modern instruments. But they do have a special quality, like old violins, that adds to the inventory of beautiful sound available to the performers of the future,” Harris said.

Learn more about studying guitar at SFCM.