The Catalan organist Montserrat Torrent will be honored today, Sunday 2 January, by the Santa Coloma de Farners City Council, in an emotional concert that will take place at the parish organ from 5 pm. Torrent spent some summers of his youth in the town where, in addition to spending his free time, he discovered, without knowing it, the instrument that would change his life. The concert will be led by the presentation by the architect and secretary of Montserrat Torrent, Josep Maria Capdevila, and will be accompanied by a mapping by the artist Marcos Xalabarder with photographs of the organist with all the family and friends during his stays in the capital of La Selva. Tickets are free but prior registration is required on the website www.culturascf.cat.
Montserrat Torrent, a teacher of organists and a great influence on the current music scene, has recently been awarded the National Music Prize by the Ministry of Culture, in the performance category. He began in this discipline thanks to the organ of the parish church of Santa Coloma de Farners, known as “the king of instruments”. Torrent has also been previously recognized with many other awards, such as the Creu de Sant Jordi (1995) or the title Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2008), and is backed by an active career of more than seventy years. of course, as well as an extensive discography of great quality.
Torrent’s passage through Santa Coloma de Farners is explained by the music journalist Albert Torrens in La dama de l’orgue (2020, FICTA), which covers moments from the organist’s life, such as when he was finally able to play. Bach’s work: “The first time I was able to touch it, I felt such a complete emotion that I saw that it was definitive in my life. I didn’t think I might hear three different colored voices and that they would fill me with a peace I had never experienced. ” Torrent, who was a member of Joan Vinyoli’s gang, was initiated by Cardinal Narcís Jubany. At the age of 95, he inaugurated this December the organ that bears his name and is located in the Oratory of Sant Felip Neri in Barcelona. A project started in 1968, the organist’s dream, and stuck for many years. Torrent is still active and today will receive the homage of Santa Coloma, the town where his vocation was born.
.
