Lorenzo Homar, Festival Casals – 1964

This poster announces the 1964 Casals Festival of Puerto Rico and was designed by celebrated Puerto Rican graphic artist Lorenzo Homar. The composition is dominated by the image of a music stand holding a score in which the profile of Pablo Casals is integrated into the musical imagery. The festival title appears along the base of the stand, creating a unified design in which portraiture, music, and typography become part of a single visual statement.

The lectern reproduced by Homar was inspired by a music stand preserved at the Haydn House Museum in Vienna, linking the poster visually to the broader European classical music tradition that shaped Casals’s artistic world.

The Casals Festival of Puerto Rico was founded in 1957 by the internationally renowned cellist, conductor, and composer Pablo Casals (1876–1973) after he settled in Puerto Rico. Its inaugural concert took place on April 22, 1957 at the Theater of the University of Puerto Rico. Over the decades, the festival attracted major international musicians and became one of the island’s most prestigious cultural events.