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Leisbert Moreno, Organista Leisbert Moreno, portoviejo ecuador, Portoviejo Ecuador Catedral Concert
“There is nothing to playing the organ. You only have to hit the right notes at the right time and the instrument plays itself.” – Johann Sebastian Bach
POR LA ESPERANZA – ‘de un Pueblo que se levanta’
Catedral/Portoviejo Ecuador
18/08/2017 8:10 pm
Organista: Leisbert Moreno
Portoviejo – Manabi Province, Ecuador – Letty Quadrado, a dear friend from Jama and Portoviejo exclaimed, “Lisa! I live here, but you know more about where I live than I do! How did you know about this concert?”
With a smirk I replied, “A little inside information; the owner of the house I am renting is the person who has been repairing the organ for this concert!
I learned more over the past two days and stopped by the cathedral to meet the young maestro in person. He is not only dedicated to his music, but he has charisma as well!
Organista Leisbert Moreno
So what inspired a young man from Portoviejo Ecuador to devote his life to the discipline and training to become an organista? The catalyst happened when he was a teenager; Leisbert’s father Pasqual Moreno played the organ in Portoviejo. When his father was sick and unable to play, Leisbert was the substitute!
With no prior experience for performing in the cathedral, Leisbert pulled the two doors inward for privacy and focused on his task!
The experience propelled him into new directions! Leisbert has been studying for three years in Roma/Rome and has also studied in Germany. He is the only professional ‘organista’ from Ecuador, and will be playing at 8:10 pm on Friday night/tonight in his home city of Portoviejo!
Friday night’s program – with Spanish titles – includes:
Leon Boellmann – “Suite Gothique”
Paul Barras – “Meditation Et. Cortege”
Johann Ludwig Krebs – “Tocata y fuga en la Menor”
Eugene Gigout – “Tocata en si Menor”
– Free Attendance, though donations will be appreciated. Proceeds will go to ‘the needy.’
JüRg Arnet, known to the locals as Jorge, has been ‘tuning’ the organ, which has been quite a task. Several days this past week he worked from daylight until almost midnight!
The organ has 1,192 ‘flautas’ – pipes and two ‘cuerpos’/bodies. Due to the coastal environment, the iron inside has rusted from salt contamination.
“They were lucky to have it still,” Jorge said.
The entire cathedral, like many areas affected by last year’s earthquake, remains under renovation and restoration. The dust from the earthquake as well as the ongoing construction placed a lot of dust inside the organ.
Side entrance – look up
Same window from inside
From Switzerland, Jürg has lived in Ecuador for over 30 years. I asked him how long he’s been repairing organs.
He smiled and replied, “My whole life – since I was age 15.”
If possible, come enjoy this free concert! If you live in Ecuador, please pass the word!
For directions, see the previous post.
- PS – Any and all mistakes are mine!
Zeebra Designs & Destinations 
How exciting! And you have to love the Bach quote: the organ plays itself — if the player has two hands and two feet that can all do different things at the same time!! Thanks, Lisa.
I watched with childlike fascination – especially when he was ‘hands free’ and getting a cardiovascular workout while dancing his feet and making amazing music! The best was each time he finished, paused, then gave what will surely be called a crowd-pleasing smile! Thanks, Hugh!
What a wonderful post, Lisa! The photos are coming alive with the music and videos you provide. We’re at the far other end of the world, but I do hope lots of visitors will find their way.
Wishing you a lovely weekend ahead,
Dina & co x
It’s wonderful when a gifted musician shares his/her talent, but especially heart warming when it’s in an area struggling to overcome the challenges of a natural disaster. Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
Listening to this fantastic organ music right now as type, What a delight, I hope you enjoy the concert Lisa. And it is wonderful that this magnificent organ within this beautiful Cathedral has been restored, and the organ tuned to be played in all its glory by this young man.. 🙂
Loved the stained glass windows, just fantastic…
it is a small world, and big smiles that Synchronicity brought you together.. 🙂 A fabulous share Lisa..
Wishing you a Happy Weekend
Sue 🙂
Yes, it willl be a great treat to hear the concert – starting about 8 hours from now! Thanks Sue.. and those cat studies of yours were so very nice!
Many thanks again, enjoy your concert I loved the organ music 🙂
What a treat – enjoy yourself tonight – well, I know you will! The cathedral looks like a beautiful space, such clean light. The organ is very impressive -especially for a location like that, I imagine. How nice that Leisbert has come home to bring this rare gift to the people. That music will just wash over you and you’ll carry it for days!
Yes, he said yesterday that the difference in my type of art and his is that mine lasted and his didn’t.. I said basically what you just said – that it would imprint for a long time in memory and in the soul…
I have the utmost respect for anyone who can play a pipe organ, especially if the pipes are located at the opposite from the organ in whatever building is housing them. I was pressed into service once (fortunately only once) to accompany a choir in that situation, and there was such a delay in time between pressing a key and hearing the sound (due to the distance air had to travel to activate the pipe) that it was a crazy mind game trying to keep a steady tempo for the choir. It was like trying to talk if someone is repeating your words right as you say them. Your mind just loses it…
Hope the concert is a wonderful experience! I do love classical organ music, even though I have no wish to ever come near playing an organ again…
Ah, though you might not want to play again, you have the insider knowledge of what it’s like – and can better appreciate the concert!
It was a lovely concert!
Happy organ concert to you.
From what I found at
https://tinyurl.com/y8gclsn3,
the quotation you cited was attributed to Bach. As clever as it is, Bach may not really have said it.
Coincidentally, we caught the last movement of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony on the car radio yesterday:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_(Saint-Sa%C3%ABns)
If you’re not familiar with this majestic piece, you can find recordings on YouTube.
Thanks for both links – and how interesting that you listened to the symphony on radio as well. The concert was lovely!
WordPress has stopped sending ‘new comment notifications’ – for some reason yours came thru as ‘new’ for the first time… and unless I go back thru the drop-down comment bar, I don’t see these waiting to be approved…. Grrrrrrrrrr.
Thanks for your feedback and the links!
You’re welcome. For the last few months some e-mail notifications of new comments have gotten delayed. It’s not unusual now for a new-comment email to show up a day late. The notifications menu in the upper right of my blog still works right.
When the internet is slow – and it is almost always slow down here – sometimes only a dozen or so comments will load in the drop-down menu and then it says, ‘there are no new comments..’ and there’s no way to scroll down to see those from previous days! Then when using faster internet, it seems to scroll forever!
Just be careful not to exert yourself too much or you might come down with scrolliosis.
Oh Lisa, this is fantastic! My mother played the pipe organ for our church when I was young. I would go with her to practice. Once, she asked me if I would like to play a hymn for church. I was so nervous, but after weeks of practice, I played one hymn at our service. I love the sound of the pipes and at the time, I was pretty good at coordinating my feet on the pedals. I haven’t played for years! This brings back wonderful memories! Thanks.
What a lovely story! Wow – you have an idea of what he must have felt that time he stepped in for his father…
The concert was lovely; he was gracious and charming, and it was well worth the effort to attend! Perhaps if you return to Ecuador/Manabi, we can ask if it’s possible for you to place your talented fingers – and gypsy toes – on that organ!
On this occasion I’d have to be honest Lisa and say I really dislike organ music! But I do admire people with musical talent, and the absolute heart and soul that they put into it. What a lovely photo of Jorge at the organ!
Ha! That made me chuckle – now at 2 thirty in the morning!!! My family would say, “Lisa’s tired..” but no, I would have chuckled anyway!
🎶🎵🎹🔔🎼🎹🎵😁
What an experience this must been – and to be so “lucky” to live in the same house as the person who has repaired the organ. I am sure the concert is going to be quite something. And the quote by Bach, doesn’t that hold true for all creative and skilled work!?
Yes, it was a lovely concert, and Leisbert is a charming young man. I slept well, awakened the next morning, looked out to see a beautiful red and gray Trogon perched in a Tamarind tree as if to say, “The show continues…” What a lovely gift to the soul!
Jurg actually has three homes, and I am renting one.. the second is for tourism rentals like a really nice hostal, and the third is his private home! It’s so very quiet and peaceful there on the ‘back’ side of the lake…
Thanks, Otto!