Cortes - new album out 23rd June!!

Sometimes you just know…
When the guest tenor on Katherine Jenkins’ autumn tour walked on stage the audience had no idea who he was, or where he came from. All they saw was agorgeous young man, immaculately dressed, with a diffident smile. And then he sang with mesmerising power, grace and passion, reminiscent of the latePavarotti. Once he made ‘Nessun Dorma’ his own the audience knew they were in the presence of somebody special.
Gardar Thór Cortes is a unique talent from a unique land. His name may appear Spanish but he’s from Iceland, where his debut album was the fastestselling release ever. Over in the UK, the album went straight to the No.1 spot of the classical charts, making Cortes the first ever Icelander to debutin the UK at Number One. The debut album ‘Cortes’ stayed at the top spot for 3 weeks.
2008 looks set to be another exciting year for Cortes with his prestigious ‘Album of the Year’ award nomination for his debut album at the Classical BritAwards in May. Cortes is one of the favourites to win and if he does he could be placed in the hall of fame alongside previous winners of the award SirPaul McCartney, Katherine Jenkins and Andrea Bocelli. 2008 will also see the release of Cortes’ 2nd album ‘When You Say You Love Me’ which promises to beas exceptional as the first.
The timbre of Cortes’ voice reminds some who know of Pavarotti in his prime but Luciano was never voted sexiest man in Iceland twice in one year. Gardarprefers not to be reminded of this achievement, instead he looks at his feet and mumbles something about there being better looking cod where he comesfrom.
Great tenors can bloom in strange places but Gardar was born to sing. Visiting the Cortes family must be like attending a masterclass. Music is bredinto their bones. His sister Nanna a soprano is a professional opera singer and younger brother Aron is currently studying to be a baritone. His Englishmother Krystyna, a concert pianist, was a piano student at the Royal Academy of Music when she married Gardar Cortes senior and moved to the northAtlantic.
In his prime Gardar père was a world class tenor. “He was in the same realm and ring as Pavarotti and Domingo,” says his son, “Once he was ill when hewas performing in Oslo and Domingo stepped in for him. But when he went abroad to sing he’d get so homesick that eventually he decided it wasn’t worthit.” Instead he founded the Icelandic Opera, the Reykjavik Symphony Orchestra and The Reykjavik Academy of Singing. Commitments permitting whenever heis conducting the opera all three kids will be in the chorus.
Gardar insists that there was never any pressure on him to become a singer. “At home, mum was always playing piano and dad was singing,” he says. “I’dlisten to dad’s records of other tenors and whole operas but I also had a huge pile of Bon Jovi, Queen and Shakin’ Stevens albums. I absolutely lovedPrince and when I was 10 I was convinced I wanted to be a pop star. Then I got bitten by the acting bug.”
Aged 13 he won the lead role in the TV series Nonni and Manni. “I got the part because I could speak English and ride horses bareback,” says Gardar, “itwas great fun we had all sorts of adventures with polar bears, an erupting volcano and getting lost at sea with whales tipping the rowing boat over. I’dalways loved movies but it didn’t ignite until then.” The series was filmed in Iceland, Norway and England and became a huge success all over Europe.Einar Orn Einarsson who played Manni is still Gardar’s best friend.
Soon after he turned 18 Gardar decided he wanted to be a singer. “I loved acting but I realised I couldn’t live without music. What decided me was theamount of times I have cried over a phrase in an opera or the piano. In opera you can combine the two and, apart from Domingo, there aren’t that manysingers who are good actors.”
“My dad warned me it would be very difficult. He asked me ‘do you know what you are getting into?’ Of course, I said but I didn’t realise how difficultit would be. I spent the next 10 years training my voice.” He spent four years at his father’s school in Reykjavik and then won a scholarship to theHochschule in Vienna but left after six months to study privately with the controversial Pole, Andrei Orlowitz, in Copenhagen.
For the next five years Gardar spent two weeks in Denmark then flew home to earn enough to pay the tuition and the airfares. He sang at funerals andweddings, appeared in West Side Story and for five summers worked with disabled people. At the opera he was the toilet cleaner, the usher and thedoorman.
Everything changed in 1999 when Gardar won the lead role of Raoul in Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the West End. It was a careerchanging decision – though not the way he first imagined.
“It was in Phantom I discovered my high notes,” he says. “I’d been having a bad evening and I was miserable, felt I wasn’t even good enough to be in thechorus. Then in my next scene I went up to the C sharp and it just stayed there. Christine, the soprano, was walking towards me and her mouth fell openand she whispered to me ‘wow is that really you.’ I’ve had those notes ever since.
“It was huge experience I learned how professional work should be done. It was like a machine, take one step too far to the right and I’d get a note fromthe Assistant Director. Singing eight shows a week makes your voice stronger and it’s like a drug. I loved it but for the first three months I wasexhausted and every Sunday I’d take myself off to the cinema to be alone.”
Most young singers would find it hard to turn down a grand a week and a starring role in one of the great musicals but when Gardar was asked to extendhis contract he said no. “I took a couple of days to think it over but it wasn’t a difficult decision. I knew I wanted to move on. It was one of thethings I had to do on my journey but I loved opera more.”
He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music opera course. His sister Nanna was also at the Academy as was Katherine Jenkins. “I wasn’t surprisedby her success,” says Gardar, “she always had that something. You just have to look at her smile.” After leaving the academy Gardar worked all overEurope playing lead tenor roles, in operas singing Mendelssohn quartets with his sister at Carnegie Hall. But no matter how good a singer you are opera’sa hard world to break into.
“The best piece of advice I was given was by my first teacher,” he says, “she told me to make myself a little cocoon because when you are singing it getsso personal. If somebody says it’s not very good it hurts. You audition 50 times and maybe get one part. That is a lot of nos but if you take itpersonally it will break you. I took a while to build that hard shell and it did sometimes get to me.”
The musical community in Iceland is small. Everybody knows everybody whether you’re a member of Sigur Ros or an opera tenor. Perhaps it wasn’tsurprising when Einar Bardarson, manager of local pop sensations Nylon, suggested making a record like Andrea Bocelli or Josh Groban. “He told me I wasan untapped natural resource,” says Gardar. “I’ve always been good at singing jazz me and my dad love to sing numbers like ‘My Curly Headed Baby’,‘Autumn Leaves' and 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’.”
The songs – including Luco Dalla’s “Caruso” and “Nella Fantasia”, Malavasi’s “Romanza”, David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager’s “The Prayer” and someIcelandic numbers - were chosen by Gardar, Einar and Bo Halldorsson – ‘the Frank Sinatra of Iceland” to show off his voice. “I loved doing it,” recallsGardar, “but I always thought ‘it’s not going to go anywhere’.”
He was wrong. It was the fastest selling record ever in Iceland, going double platinum in three months. His debut concert in Reykjavik, where he wasjoined by Katherine Jenkins, was another triumph. For the UK release of the album he has recorded five new songs – “Where The Lost Ones Go”, a duetwith Katherine, “Hunting High and Low by Aha”, Luna, “Nessun Dorma” and the bravura “Granada” that ends on a high C..
Success and sexiest man awards not withstanding Gardar insists his life back home has not changed. He loves to watch movies -‘everything from slushyromantic comedies to shoot ‘em up cop thrillers”- and to spend time with his actress fiancée. He is however marked out by his name. Less than 5% ofIcelanders have surnames and despite his polyglot ancestry - “my mother’s father was Polish and we’re a mix of Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Danish,Icelandic and English” – nobody knows how and where the name Cortes comes from.
At home his family talk a mixture of Icelandic and English – often in the same sentence- and his English is fluent, if occasionally a little oldfashioned, the legacy of spending six months at a Hertfordshire private school when he was 9 and 11. He loves England but like his father before him hisheart is, and always will be in Iceland. There is something about the country that always drags you back. “When we see Bork in the streets we always sayshe’s come home,” says Gardar.
One day the tenor from Reykjavik will fulfil his ambition to sing Otello at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Perhaps 2008 will see Cortes becomingcloser to fulfil this ambition.
Catch Cortes while you can….
Cortes’ sensational new album “When You Say You Love Me” will be released on 23rd June. Pre order your copies NOW by using the links below:
Play.com: click herefor Play.com
Amazon: click here for Amazon
Cortes’ first single from the new album “When You Say You Love Me” will be released through download only on 9th June.
Cortes Fan Pages:
http://www.gardarthorcortes.com
http://www.gardarthorcortes.me.uk/