A Northern Star

Classical chart topping Icelandic tenor Cortes talks to 50Connect.

Tenor Gardar Thor Cortes has been bringing his voice to the UK, entering the classical chart at number one with his debut album after it became the fastest selling release ever in his native Iceland.

Cortes, aged 33, decided to record an album when Einar Bardarson, manager of the popular Icelandic group Nylon, suggested making a record like Andrea Bocelli or Josh Groban. The songs including Luco Dalla's Caruso, Ennio Morricone's Nella Fantasia, Malavasi's Romanza, and some Icelandic numbers, were chosen by Cortes, Bardarson and Bo Halldorsson - 'the Frank Sinatra of Iceland' - to show off his voice.

"It's nice when things are going well," says Cortes. "I think it's a healthy thing not to expect them and just to do your best, you can't really do more than that. Being number one is an added bonus and a nice surprise."

For the UK release of the album he recorded several new songs, Where The Lost Ones Go - a duet with Katherine Jenkins, Luna featuring Heather Small, Nessun Dorma, the bravura Granada that ends on a high C, and Hunting High and Low, which the tenor releases on 23th July as his latest single, the profits of which he's donating to the charity Shelter. This association follows a recent concert in Covent Garden in which Cortes performed for free to highlight Shelter's current wall of shame campaign, urging people to sign and call on Gordon Brown to fund more social rented homes.

"I was trying to make people aware of the situation in London and the UK of just how many people are without a place to call their home. It's only one of many good causes, but I think one can never do too much when trying to raise awareness of situations that can be put right quite easily."

The single, Hunting High and Low was originally a hit in the 1980s for Norwegian group A-ha.

"My manager and I sat down and spoke about what would be a good idea and came up with that. It's obviously a pop song, and a good one, but the way we do it makes it into a track with a more classical feel, which I think works."

I wondered if the "crossover" label annoyed Cortes, a genuine opera singer.

"The word 'crossover' means crossing over from somewhere to somewhere and back again. However there are a lot of artists today that are labeled as crossover but not really crossing over from anywhere. If you're true to what you believe and the music you're doing, and don't cross the line you make for yourself and lose credibility as a classical artist, I think you can't go wrong."

Despite his crossover recording being successful alongside pop albums in the UK chart, reaching number 27, opera is Cortes' passion. He wants to share this with his audience.

"Opera is what I studied, and classical music is so vast and a lot of it is so good that I wanted to introduce that to more people, and doing a crossover album is a good way to do this. Other artists are doing it but I felt that I could give it a go and try to show people the music that I love. All music is equally as good, if people like rock or pop or jazz you can't knock that, but there's such a lot of music that people haven't heard so I want them to at least get to know it a bit and then judge, as opposed to just thinking they don't like opera or classical music."

Classical music has been part of Cortes' life since birth. His father, Gardar Cortes, is also a tenor - who founded the Icelandic Opera, the Reykjavik Symphony Orchestra and a singing school - and his mother Krystyna is a pianist, from England. His sister and brother sing soprano and baritone.

"I'm fortunate that there was always music at home - Mum used to practice eight hours a day and when she wasn't practicing Dad would be singing or listening to his opera albums. It sort of sunk in! From as long as I remember I always wanted to become a singer, though at the beginning I wasn't sure what kind, but in my teens I realised that I wanted to become an opera singer. I am grateful that I've got my mother to look to for advice and my dad - being a tenor himself - for advice on technique and opera parts and so on. I think I'm quite lucky."

Cortes did not simply walk into a singing career however. After a spell acting in the TV series Nonni and Manni aged 13, his various jobs included a lot of time working backstage.

"It's always good to try different jobs. In my case apart from working in the office I've done every job in the opera house that a person could do - cleaning, stage work, ushering and chorus, you name it. I loved it because I was in the place I knew that I wanted to be."

After training in Reykjavik, Vienna and Copenhagen, singing at funerals and weddings, and appearing in West Side Story, in 1999 Cortes won the lead role of Raoul in Phantom of the Opera in the West End. He appears to relish such singing challenges.

"When I was doing Raoul in Phantom of the Opera here in the West End that was like heaven really because there were eight shows a week, which is a lot, but eight times a week I got to be on stage performing, doing what I love. That was a great time, a huge experience, and I learnt a lot. When I sing opera, musicals, lighter stuff, oratorio, or anything, I always use the same technique that I learned. One has to be careful not to differ from the foundation of how to sing. The only thing that changes is the style because it's a different genre of music. Even though my passion is opera I still love singing different kinds of music and that's one of the reasons why I released this album. Next year I'm singing oratorio, I don't know if I'll do a musical again or not but if the chance occurred then I'd think about it. It's that sort of breadth in music that I enjoy being able to do and having the chance to do different styles."

Following Phantom of the Opera Cortes won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. At the same time his sister Nanna was also at the Academy, as was Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, who he joined on tour in 2006.

"I was there on the opera course and she was there on a different course. We'd met once before in Iceland funnily enough, because we've got a mutual friend who I went to school with in Iceland, and Katherine came to see her friend during the summer before I started at the Academy, so we go back some years. I invited her to be my special guest in my Iceland concert and she kindly said yes, and to return the favour she invited me on her tour."

After leaving the Academy Cortes worked all over Europe, playing lead tenor roles in operas by Verdi, Mozart and others, singing concerts including Mendelssohn quartets with his sister at Carnegie Hall, and even rousing a different type of audience at football matches in Britain. He performed at Upton Park in April before a West Ham V Chelsea game, and at Wembley Stadium in May before the Football League Championship playoff final.

"I didn't know what to expect because obviously the people there come to see a match. I wasn't sure how they'd react when they saw somebody walk out on the holy pitch in a suit then start to sing, but both times I performed they were very good and sang along. It was loads of fun, and very different from what I usually do. It was my largest crowd by far, I think it was 35,000 at the West Ham pitch and then 80,000 at Wembley, which is a huge audience."

Cortes will be performing to more audiences across the UK this autumn when he joins Lesley Garrett on tour.

"We haven't worked together before. We met a couple of weeks ago for a meal and a chat about music, repertoire and the upcoming tour. She's a lovely lady, very bubbly and down-to-earth. It should be fun, I'm looking forward to it."

The tour will take in Sheffield, Scarborough, Birmingham, Llandudno, Derby, Aberdeen, Lowestoft, Northampton and Manchester. Britain feels like a home-from-home to Cortes, thanks to his mother and time spent at a private school in Hertfordshire when he was 9 and 11.

"I was born in Iceland but raised up in both countries, so being here is not really being abroad from home. I don't think it really matters where you're from when you're performing as an artist if you try and do the best you can each time you perform."

Cortes' album and single are available at all good record stores, or you can purchase Cortes or Hunting High and Low online at Amazon.

You can visit Cortes' official website at: www.cortes.is

By Cherry Butler

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