The tenor from Gran Canaria, Manuel Gómez Ruiz, will perform this Thursday, January 22, at the Teatro de San Bartolomé. He will be accompanied by pianist Ignacio Clemente Estupiñán, within the framework of the 31st Music Festival of the Canary Islands, which continues its planned program for the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. After a first performance last Thursday, by the Cappella Istropolitana orchestra, the next concert will be that of the tenor, with a selection that will mix pieces by the artist himself with works by Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Ravel, Britten and Copland.
The concert will begin at 9:00 p.m. and, "given the quality and technical skill of Gómez Ruíz", the Cabildo highlights that "the musical evening that will be experienced in the Theater of the municipality of Ajey will be one of the most attractive encounters of the event".
This concert, and all those of the 31st Music Festival of the Canary Islands that take place in Lanzarote and La Graciosa, are organized by the Government of the Canary Islands with the collaboration of the Cabildo of Lanzarote. The City Council of San Bartolomé also collaborates in this.
Originally from Gran Canaria, Manuel Gómez Ruíz began his musical activity in the Youth Choir of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria under the direction of Amaia Añúa. After finishing his secondary studies in the United States, where he took his first singing lessons with Martha Tortolano (Saint Michael's College), he moved to Berlin.
In the autumn of 2006 he entered the "Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler" in that city, with Anneliese Fried as his teacher. The tenor participates in the productions of the opera department, singing the roles of Gerardo and Bálteo. At the Hebbel Theater in Berlin and in collaboration with the Komische Oper in Berlin, Gómez Ruiz sang in "La Revoltosa" (2007), being the first time that the zarzuela was performed in a German theater with retransmission by Deutschlandradio Kultur and, in 2008, he played the role of Bartolomeo Dellacqua in J. Strauss' operetta "II Eine Nacht in Venedig" in the same theater. With the Lautten Compagney and under the direction of Wolfgang Katchner he played the role of Eurimaco in Claudio Monteverde's "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria" (Schlosstheater Rheinsberg).
After a tour of concerts at the III Encounter of Religious Music of the Canary Islands, the tenor debuted under the baton of Pedro Halffter and the direction of Juan Carlos Plaza at the Teatro Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with the role of the First Prisoner in "Fidelio". His musical commitments have taken him to the Konzerthaus in Berlin (Dornröschen, 2008 and 2009) and to the Rheinsberg Easter Festival (2011), playing King Midas in the opera "Das Urteil des Midas" by A.E.M. Grétry.
In July 2011, he participated in the production of the Opera department of the Universität der Künste, where he has been studying since 2009 with Robert Gambill, in the opera by G. Rossini "L'occasione fa il ladro" playing Don Eusebio. The production was nominated for best opera show and best stage direction by the musical magazine Opernwelt. The tenor cultivates opera in parallel with his concert facet, participating in oratorios and recitals both in Germany and in Spain.
