Pedro Julio Rosario Almonte, known as Pepe Rosario, was a Dominican merengue singer, pianist and bandleader. He founded Los Hermanos Rosario with his brothers and led it until his death at twenty-one, and the songs that first put the group on Dominican radio were sung by him.

Salvaleón de Higüey

He was born in Higüey, in the province of La Altagracia at the eastern end of the country, into a family of seven brothers who were all going to end up in the same band. He was about sixteen when they formed it.

The debut was on 1 May 1978, in their own town, playing for the municipal authorities at a Labour Day event. From there the group worked its way around the eastern towns before the bandleader Chiquitín Payán hired them to play the Hotel Romana at Casa de Campo, which was the first booking that took them out of the local circuit.

Las Locas

He was the pianist, the musical director and the leader, and he sang. The group recorded María Guayando as its first single, and moved to the capital in 1980 to make a first album. Las Locas came off it and went to the top of the Dominican charts.

At the time of his death the stations were playing Las Locas and Te Seguiré Queriendo, both in his voice. The sound the country first recognised as Los Hermanos Rosario was his.

What followed

He died on 19 March 1983 in La Romana, at twenty-one. The group stopped playing for a time and the brothers considered giving it up altogether and going home.

They did not. Toño Rosario and Rafa Rosario took the orchestra forward, and within a decade it was the most successful merengue band the country had produced. Everything it did after 1983 rests on five years that he directed.