career profile
Faure Requiem; soloist Julio Castilla; Holy Trinity Cathedral; Symphony Orchestra of the South of Spain; The Calpe Singers; cond.Hector Cortes. year c 2001
with Hector. The last engagement was to sing at St Peter’s Basilica on the feast of All Saints. The plain chant was conducted by Monsignor Colino and when the Calpe Singers reached one of the motets he told them to sing pianissimo. Hector’s thought the voices would not be heard amidst the hustle and bustle of tourists visiting the Basilica. The Maestro di Capello told them to follow his instructions which they did and the reaction was amazing as every note could be heard and Monsignor Colino summed up the performance: “St. Peter’s is always noisy, footsteps, talking, guides explaining... but for you, St. Peter’s stood still,” he said, embracing Hector. The Calpe Singers sang in many concerts outside Gibraltar including at the Basilique de Sacre Coeur, Paris; EuroDisney, Paris and the Isla Christina International Choral Festival in Huelva as guests of honour. The Isla Christina organisers wanted to fly the Gibraltar flag and, incredibly, the Gibraltar government was unable to produce one despite a trawl through all the departments. One was eventually found, and the flag flew, the choir and its soloist Johanna Cortes (Hector’s wife) got shouts of “Bravo!” and were applauded ‘por Sevillanas’. Hector worked closely with the late William Gomez. He was the Music Director and arranger of the CD The Calpe Singers sing Albert Hammond which so impressed Albert that the singers were invited to accompany him when he sang at the Miss Gibraltar Competition held at the Queen’s Cinema. Many years before, in 1967, Hector felt Gibraltar had become ‘of age’ musically and so formed first the Gibraltar Youth Orchestra, took the reins of the Gibraltar Symphony Orchestra, and finally the Gibraltar Band. No mean achievement for one person with a limited budget to accomplish in a short space of time. It was brought to his attention that there was no Gibraltar Regiment Band so he and many of his musician friends joined the territorials and 1980 saw the first appearance of the Gibraltar Regimental Band with Hector promoted to Colour Sergeant. The present powerful and well equipped band grew from this seedling. Hector the only Gibraltarian Gibraltar Regimental Band band master. Another of his innovations was the Gibraltar Girls’ Choir of 360 voices which began when he was appointed Head of Music at Westside
24
School in 1977. Concerts by 70 members of the choir in Wigmore Hall, London, and St.John’s Smith Square resulted in a recording (LP) by the choir. In 1979 the lure of becoming a professional musician proved too strong and he left the security of the teaching profession. A small group was formed, Tone Cluster, and after a horrendous engagement in Leon Hector ’s equipment had to be sold for the fare back to the Rock. But it was not all doom and gloom. A single was recorded in Madrid under the name, Gibby, which was chosen by the PR department of Polydor/Phongram. The producer, without the group’s knowledge, entered the single in a competition to select the Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. It origins were kept a guarded secret and fortunately it came second — to win would have been a political disaster. Imagine the uproar when, inevitably, it was found out Gibby was a Gibraltarian band. A double album was also released, one in English, the other in Spanish. Back in Gibraltar with no job, life was very
In 1979 the lure of becoming a professional musician proved too strong and he left the security of the teaching profession
much hand-to-mouth. He opened a small music shop, returned to supply teaching and the Music Centre. There was considerable success in the music grade examinations and only a single failure at grade seven piano. The Music Centre moved many times, and finally settled in Wellington Front. Following a suggestion from George Chincotta, Hector was appointed head of music at Bayside, then St Joseph’s Middle School and finally St Anne’s Middle School. He decided to take early retirement and in 2003 followed two of his children to England. He bought a house in Westbury, Wiltshire. What saddened him most about his musical career was that no one ever stopped him on Main Street to thank him for what he had done for music on the Rock. A musician can never be kept away from music and so he started a Wilshire Calpe Singers (the Gibraltarian members were his wife, his daughter and himself). Concerts were given around Westbury. He also taught music at a local school for two days a week until a serious difference of opinion with an examiner compelled him to retire. An advertisement in the Wiltshire Times sought a conductor for the Freshford Singers, and he successfully applied to find the members were high grade amateurs, many being former singers from the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir. He performed a series of major works in and around Bath until ill health forced him to retire. The last concert held in Bath was Bach’s St Luke’s Passion and a work by Felix Mendelssohn. Now a prolific author with nine titles, his first novel Anti Christ: the Beginning is the first of a trilogy whose second installment, In the name of Evil, is to be released shortly with the final book The Power and the Glory still to be published. Hector thinks the local musical scene has never been stronger and concluded the interview with these thoughts: “It appears Gibraltar has returned to a chaotic state of music education after the demise of the Music Centre. Or so I hear on the grapevine. It is fragmented and leading nowhere. Were it not for the natural talent of the Gibraltarian, many of whom fly the flag for music, Gibraltar could well return to the bad old days. The talent is evident in Albert Hammond, of course, Charles Ramirez, John Bruzon, a number of popular music singers and performers, and not forgetting soloists of the calibre of Eric Ellul, whose legal talents extend to brilliant guitar playing. “But then, being a full-time published author now, I have other interests to occupy my mind.” n
TEAM BUILDING The team at RecruitGibraltar went on an underwater adventure as part of a reward and team building activity in Rosia Bay recently. All members of the team took the chance to complete a try dive with local dive school, Dive Charters Gibraltar and a great day was had by all. A great diversity of things were seen from octopuses and a huge variety of fish to brightly coloured starfish and even a sunken car! n
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • OCTOBER 2011