Portal de Molina de Segura
www.portaldemolina.com
The act of public recognition of Tomás Fernández Gil, Molina de Segura's Favorite Son, on the occasion of granting his name to the Auditorium, by virtue of the unanimous agreement of the Municipal Plenary on October 29, 2018, takes place today, Wednesday, February 27, at at 5.30 pm, at the Municipal Auditorium of the Parque de la Compañía.
In the act a commemorative plaque will be discovered and will offer a brief concert students from the Conservatory of Music of Murcia and the Conservatory of Music Professional Jaime López de Molina de Segura, and will also have the intervention of the teacher Tomás Fernández Gil.
The Mayor of Molina de Segura, Esther Clavero Mira, and the Councilor for Culture, Pedro Jesús Martínez Baños attend.
Tomás Fernández Gil was named Favorite Son of the municipality on February 27, 2017. Now, the town of Molina de Segura offers public recognition to his national and international career as a musician, professor and guitarist.
Tomás Fernández Gil was born on April 13, 1933, in the hamlet of La Ribera de Molina, the son of farmers.
He is the fifth of six children, who live their childhood in a family atmosphere with a strong sensitivity to music.
He received his first training in the town school, under the direction of José Martínez Pérez, where he obtained, in July 1942, a Diploma of Honor, granted by the Molina de Segura Town Council.
Following the advice of his mother and teacher, he entered in October 1945 at the Minor Seminary of San José, and later at the Seminary of San Fulgencio de Murcia, where he remained until June 1951. There he would discover his true vocation: music .
He continues his studies at the School of Education and, at the same time, at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Murcia.
In October of 1951 he began to give guitar lessons with Pedro Guerrero, to whom he owes the most meritorious lessons and his choice for this instrument.
As a student, he was part of the Tuna University of Murcia, as well as a trio of guitar, lute and bandurria, and other groups, with which he presented contests and programs on Radio Youth and Radio Murcia.
At the end of his studies of teaching, and a scholarship by the City of Murcia, he studied Guitar, Harmony and others with Regino Sainz de la Maza, at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid, where he won, on his own merits, the Prize Extraordinary as guitarist at the end of his studies in 1957.
In 1960, encouraged and encouraged by his great friend Narciso Yepes, six years older, they go with him, scholarships both by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the master classes taught by the teacher Andrés Segovia in the international music courses of Santiago de Compostela .
There, the young singer Tomás Fernández has the opportunity to meet the most distinguished of the Spanish classical guitar and English, Japanese, etc. guitarists.
His first concert in Molina de Segura was on January 14, 1961, at the Casino, where he shows an innate talent in the making of what would be a successful musical career as a guitarist.
His whole life has been devoted to concerts, and especially to music education, which he spent a short time at the Conservatory of Music of Murcia and almost all his working life, for thirty-seven years, in Germany, as a professor for different German conservatories.
Very soon it would be known as the German Andres Segovia.
At present, his students are directors of important German conservatories.
Among his Murcian students we have to mention Jaime García Mengual, guitar teacher at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Murcia, a notable concert soloist, and Carmen María Ros, two guitarists, and later Director of Camerata Aguilar.
As a concert performer, he has offered guitar recitals throughout Spain and Europe.
He formed a duet with Takashi Ochi, a magnificent Japanese mandolin player, considered one of the best in the world, and performing his music for the German SDR radio and television station.
He also offered concerts for television in Frankfurt and Cologne for programs dedicated to Spanish emigrants in Germany.
His prolific career as a concert artist led him to be part of trios, quartets, quintets and orchestras.
Julios Alf, director of the Dusseldorf Conservatory, writer and music critic, said that throughout Europe there was not such an outstanding guitarist as Tomás Fernández Gil.
Throughout his long musical life he has met great figures of music, such as: the harpists Nicanor Zabaleta and María Rosa Calvo Manzano, soloist of the RTVE Orchestra;
to the orchestra directors Helmuth Rilling and Jean Martinón, with whom he shared the stage;
guitarists John Williams or Alirio Díaz, to name a few;
to the pianists Alicia de Garrocha and Rosa Sabater;
the composer Federico Mompou;
the soprano and pianist Conchita Badía;
Alexandre Tansman, composer and pianist;
the cellist and composer Gaspar Cassadó;
and many more.
In his musical career, the recordings include Spanish music on the guitar, for record labels of international level.
One of his most memorable performances was in June 1991, in Leipzig, on the occasion of an institutional event in the presence of the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, in a tribute to Olympic medalists.
The finale of this event would be a concert by Tomás Fernández Gil televised for the whole of Germany.
In 1988, already retired, he would return to Spain, to his native Ribera, where he enjoys offering recitals as the consummate guitarist that is in numerous cultural centers.
One of his last concerts was at the celebration of the centenary of the Casino de La Ribera de Molina in December 2016.
Tomás Fernández Gil is the first classical guitarist to have had Molina de Segura in all his history, considered, together with Narciso Yepes, the best guitarists of his time in the Region of Murcia, and great masters nationally and internationally.
For decades he was the most international musician from Molin, treasuring a path worthy of being recognized by this municipality.
Tomás Fernández Gil treasures a voluminous biography full of concerts in Spain and Europe, which made him an accomplished professional of the classical guitar, receiving the esteem and consideration of critics and audiences, for his technical mastery of the instrument, his musical preparation, his sensitivity and its balanced sound.
For all these reasons, the City Council Plenary approved a motion in February 2017 with the following agreements:
One. To award the distinction of Molina de Segura's Favorite Son to D. Tomás Fernández Gil, professor and guitarist, for his successful and outstanding national and international career as a musician.
Two.
Promote an institutional act to deliver said recognition.
During the act of recognition, there will be a guitar recital by the brothers José and Rafael Jiménez Alarcón, from the Conservatory of Music of Murcia, homage to Tomás Fernández Gil, with the following program:
José Jiménez Alarcón: American Prelude No. 3 (Field) / Abel Carlevaro (1916-2001).
Rafael Jiménez Alarcón: Dance in my minor / Jorge Morel (1931).
José Jiménez Alarcón and Rafael Jiménez Alarcón: Waltz in E minor / René Bartoli (1955) and Duetto I in D major / Filippo Gragnani (1768-1820).
In addition, the guitar group of the Professional Conservatory of Music Maestro Jaime Lopez de Molina de Segura, composed of Aurora Hernández Lozano, Aday García Merino and Adrián Morales Torrano, will also participate in the homage to Tomás Fernández Gil, with the interpretation of the following program:
Adage.
A. Vivaldi (1678-1741).
Peruvian Vals.
Jorge Cardoso (1949).
The Entertainer.
S. Joplin (1868-1917).
Source: Ayuntamiento de Molina de Segura
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