Pancho had it pretty clear since he was little, when he told his teacher at the school in Tías "that when he grew up he would get on his donkey, put his guitar on his shoulder and travel through all the towns singing." In 5th grade, when Mrs. María Teresa Placeres' class got upset, they would invite him to sing a Canarian song or a bolero from his extensive repertoire; after the pertinent concentration looking at the blackboard... he managed to delight the class and get the first applause from his classmates. Previously, in kindergarten at Lali Rodríguez Delgado's house, when he could barely walk, he was already making percussion music with paint cans and two sticks and also learned the richness of stews and meals with fresh fish, which now, in the rigor of his diet, El Tenor values.
And Pancho had a very happy childhood in the hamlet of Masdache and in his school environment, "he was very affectionate, chubby, a good boy, smiling and spontaneous," says his teacher. His musical background is well established; on his mother's side, his grandfather, Don Francisco Perdomo Spínola, known as Don Pancho the doctor, after whom he is named, took office as a doctor of Public Home Assistance in the municipalities of Tías and San Bartolomé in 1934 and, later, obtained a position in Arrecife, being a doctor at the Hospital del Cabildo Insular, an institution in which he became director, his passage through politics would lead him to be repressed by the Dictatorship regime and be suspended for a time from his health practice. Don Pancho had a large collection of classical music records and what impressed Pancho the most was to see that his grandfather's entire discography was personally dedicated to him; his maternal grandmother, Doña Dolores Quintana Sáenz, with whom he lived in Masdache during the best years of his childhood, transmitted to him his first contacts with the world of opera and provided him with old classical music cassettes, some in Germanic languages, and Panchito with his prodigious memory managed to recite them in Bavarian; on his father's side, the extensive family genealogy of the Corujos in Lanzarote and Hispanic America directly influenced him, great players of stringed instruments and great singers. Florián Corujo Tejera, his father (Favorite Son of San Bartolomé), will be his direct source of inspiration and first teacher of strings and voice; from dawn until late at night the timple sounded in Masdache... Panchito grew up among isas, folías and Latin American music, his father will be the precursor of the Music Schools in all the towns of Lanzarote, Pancho from a young age accompanied him on his daily learning tours through all the socio-cultural centers. Many musicians on the island were the result of that itinerant work of Florián who also reinforced Panchito's innate musical genes.
With all the background..., Pancho oriented his vocation towards the musical profession, when he arrived at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the intention of formalizing his knowledge, they discovered his vocal possibilities aimed at a professional future as an opera singer. Pancho would have been a good conservatory professor, or a good music teacher in a school or institute, but he opted for the option of cultivating his voice since he made his first singing tests in Tenerife. There they discovered his innate qualities and the voice as the first instrument. The help of his teachers, Célida Alzola and the distinguished soprano María Orán, will be decisive to complete his training and obtain the Professional Title of Music in 2004.
In the 2005-2006 academic year, Pancho obtained a scholarship from the Albéniz Foundation and managed to enter the "Reina Sofía" Higher School of Music in the "Alfredo Kraus" singing chair. This "Reina Sofía" School specializes in bringing classical music closer to society in general, in addition to offering you the higher degree in music, the highest in approved teachings according to the Bologna Plan. At the "Reina Sofía" Pancho dedicates many hours to study, to rehearsals; he sacrifices himself and begins to participate while still a student in concerts and auditions. Pancho made his debut in 2006 with Die Fledermaus for the Canarian Friends of the Opera in Las Palmas, as Arbace in Idomeneo at the Teatro Real in Madrid, then in A Coruña as Macduff in Macbeth, he continues in different halls, Santander, León, Zaragoza and in the National Auditorium of Madrid in which he debuts with the National Orchestra of Spain with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He obtains the regional singing prize of Caja Canarias, the first prize in the International Singing Competition of Sitges. In 2007 he was awarded the second prize, the prize for the best Tenor and the prize for the best performer of Zarzuela in the International Singing Competition "Francisco Viñas" in Barcelona.
Since then, his career and his repertoire have been full of many successes and new horizons have opened up for him, Francisco Corujo arrives in Italy, La Traviata (Alfredo) on the mythical boards of the Fenice in Venice; Romèo et Juliette at the Arena in Verona; Don Giovanni (Don Ottavio) at the Verdi in Salermo. Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opera of Tel Avid; Croatia, Qatar, USA Peru, Chile, or Dominican Republic, also stands out as an interpreter of oratorio and symphonic, with works such as Mozart's Requiem, Puccini's Misa de Gloria or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He has also had the opportunity to work with great musical and stage directors such as Plácido Domingo, Alberto Zedda, Jesús López Cobos, Phillipe Entremont, Josep Pons, Giancarlo Del Monaco, Emilio Sagi, Robert Carsen, Nicola Luisotti, Vasily Petrenko, among others.
Pancho the Tenor from Masdache wakes up in any place in the world..., how many times has he wondered, where am I today?, many hours of airports, flights, hotels, life away from the family, hours of concentration, of rehearsals in the solitude of a hotel, the time to act, the high responsibility, the demands of the public, to sing well and be a good actor, to give everything when the time comes, to win over the public... then, the applause, the people standing up how many bravos!..., one more performance, one more success and, it was worth so much effort to start again and continue to succeed... In the Canary Islands, his homeland, they also appreciate him as was evident in the tribute to Alfredo Kraus together with the Sabandeños in the Auditorium of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and a few dates ago, in the popular New Year's concert together with the Symphony Orchestra of Las Palmas or in the Doramas Park for the Musicando festival together with the pianist Juan Francisco Parra and Domingo "El Colorao" on the timple. Pancho Corujo has also had the opportunity to sing with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, and with the Philharmonic of Gran Canaria. Pancho between success and success escapes to Lanzarote to see his family and his lifelong friends, all that The Tenor has of fame, notoriety and popularity he has of endearing, cultured, simple, he is a great music lover and connoisseur of all styles of music, especially in rock and folklore of Latin America and his friends know it (...). The already famous and accomplished Tenor has been summoned on numerous occasions to perform in Lanzarote, I remember a Lyrical Concert in the magical natural setting of the Cueva de los Verdes, there we delighted in his voice from the bottom of the cave, he perceived the closeness, the warmth of the volcano and of his people who appreciate him, the same thing happened when he came to the theater "EL Salinero" in Arrecife to present his first album "Songs of Paolo Tosti" of the Play-Classics label or, his "Passages of Life and Return" at the end of last year in the same theater. Previously, in this "pandemic year of 2020", for a few lucky ones, El Tenor offered us a concert, accompanied by the pianist Juan Francisco Parra, organized by the Nino Díaz Foundation, in the modest "Sala Indieras" of Tías, in which Pancho perceived the warmth, the support, the emotion, some tears... and it is that Panchito when he was a child played and sang in these places and obtained his first applause...
