"“I tried to play absurd things, like Chopin's nocturnes, but there was no way to make them sound right. Back in Barcelona, she went to the conservatory. But the organ teacher told me that if I came as an amateur, he wouldn't teach me. I told him that it was my calling. But that was a lie, she recalls with a smile. So he punished me and made me practice scales with my feet for months.”"
"“One day, he took pity on me and gave me a Bach chorale to play. Suddenly, I realized I could play three different sounds without needing any other instruments, just by using the stops. I was in heaven. Eight decades later, Montserrat Torrent who turned 100 on April 17 is still in love with the organ, but she is no longer an amateur.”"
"“She has suffered from hearing problems for years, but gets up every day at 5 a.m. to play. She knows every sound, every register, and every melody by heart. Montserrat Torrent, 100, plays a piece on the organ of the church of Sant Felip Neri in Barcelona.”"
"“The idea of creating it came to her when, on a scholarship trip to Paris, she heard a powerful instrument for the first time. She was stunned. Most of Barcelona's historic organs had disappeared during the war. The church of Sant Felip Neri a Baroque temple in the heart of the Gothic Quarter struck her as the ideal spot: it sits in a quiet square, and its whitewashed walls and wooden galleries offer perfect acoustics.”"
Montserrat Torrent began playing organ at 18 in a chapel in Santa Coloma de Farners, where she struggled to make complex pieces sound right. In Barcelona, a conservatory organ teacher refused to teach her as an amateur and required months of practice with her feet. Eventually, the teacher gave her a Bach chorale, and she discovered she could produce multiple sounds using the organ’s stops. She later became a celebrated centenarian organist, known for memorizing registers, melodies, and sounds despite long-term hearing problems. She also led efforts to build a grand organ bearing her name, inspired by an instrument heard in Paris and installed in the church of Sant Felip Neri for its acoustics.
Read at english.elpais.com
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