Esther Borja Pérez

Esther Borja, considered one of the main voices of Cuba in the twentieth century. With a mezzo-soprano voice, she was one of the most important promoters of lyric art in Cuba and is considered the best interpreter of songs by the famous Cuban composer and pianist Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963), of whom she was a personal friend.

Known as the "enchanting damsel," based on one of Lecuona's themes that most identified her, Borja performed in zarzuelas and operettas, worked in radio, theater, film and television, where she even hosted a musical program for several years.

She was the daughter of Ladislao Borja and Ramona Pérez, who sang Cuban songs and excerpts from zarzuelas at family gatherings accompanied by piano, and was her initial teacher.

The family received outstanding musicians of the time, such as Antonio María Romeu. As an adolescent, Esther Borja met Rosendo Ruíz Suárez, who was her neighbor, and Sindo Garay, two greats of traditional Cuban Trova.
In 1929 she performed for the first time in public in the town of Santiago de Las Vegas, singing Noche azul and Canto siboney, by Ernesto Lecuona. When she completed her secondary studies, she began taking music lessons at the Centro Gallego. She graduated in piano with a silver medal in 1932.

During the early years of the 1930s she sang as an amateur at radio station CMCA, where she met Juan Brouwer, son of composer Ernestina Lecuona, whom she also met shortly after. It was Ernestina Lecuona who prepared her first recital. In 1934 Esther Borja toured several cities in Cuba with a repertoire of Cuban and Mexican songs.

She began her professional life in 1935 alongside Ernesto and Ernestina Lecuona, offering concerts at the Lyceum Lawn Tennis Club and the National Theater (now Gran Teatro de La Habana), and performing on stations CMK and CMX. She premiered, by Lecuona, Para Vigo me voy, Soñé que me dejabas and Mi amor del aire se azora. At the Lyceum she presented that year a cycle of songs that Lecuona dedicated to her, with texts by José Martí: Un ramo de flores, La que se murió de amor, Una rosa blanca, Es mi canto de amor, Tu cabellera and Sé que estuviste llorando. By Ernestina Lecuona, at the Auditorium theater, she introduced the songs Bésame, loca and Cierra, cierra los ojos.

In September 1935, on the same stage, she made her theatrical debut in the zarzuela Lola Cruz, with music by Ernesto Lecuona and libretto by Gustavo Sánchez Galarraga, alongside soprano Caridad Suárez and tenors Miguel de Grandy and Pedrito Fernández. In that work she premiered the waltz Damisela encantadora, with extraordinary success.
In 1936 she made her first tour of Latin America. She performed, alongside Ernesto Lecuona, in Valparaíso and Santiago de Chile. In Buenos Aires she debuted at the Gran Teatro Broadway, obtained an exclusive contract to sing on Radio El Mundo and later participated, with Lecuona and Bola de Nieve, in the film Adiós, Buenos Aires (1937), directed by Leopoldo Torres Ríos, with actors Amelia Bence and Tito Lusiardo.

In 1940, at the Principal theater of the Comedia de La Habana, she participated in the production of Las Leandras, by Francisco Alonso, with Rosita Fornés, and played Juliet in the operetta El conde de Luxemburgo, by Franz Lehar. That same year, in Buenos Aires, she sang Lecuona's zarzuelas El cafetal, Lola Cruz, Rosa la China and María la O. Two years later, in Cuba, she starred in the zarzuelas Luisa Fernanda and Azabache, by Moreno Torroba; the operetta La bayadera, by Kalmán, and the comic opera Don Gil de Alcalá, by Penella.

In 1942 she was contracted exclusively by CMQ Radio to participate in stellar programs. The following year she debuted alongside Lecuona at Hall of America and later at Steinway Hall in New York, performing Cuban songs. She was contracted by composer and impresario Sigmund Romberg to join his company, with which she performed at Carnegie Hall, backed by his large concert orchestra.

With Romberg's company she completed an extended tour of forty-four American states. Among other venues, she earned applause at Orchestra Hall and Schubert theaters in Chicago; Lyric in Baltimore; Academy of Music in Philadelphia, and Radio City Music Hall in New York.

She returned to Cuba in 1948, and offered concerts and recitals in several Havana theaters. On April 15 of that year she presented her Pan-American Concert at the Auditorium theater, backed by five notable pianist-composers of her generation: Orlando de la Rosa, Felo Bergaza, Carlos Barnet, Mario Fernández Porta and Julio Gutiérrez.

She performed, among other titles, Tristeza andina, by Peruvian Carlos Valderrama; Ese lero, lero, lero, by Mexican María Greever; Los arbolitos, by Mexican Martínez Gil; Love, come back to me, by American Romberg, and Alma llanera, by Venezuelan Pedro Elías Gutiérrez. Also, by Cuban authors, Al recordar tu nombre, by Carmelina Delfín; No lo dudes, by Ernestina Lecuona; Si lo quisiera Dios and Por qué me has hecho llorar, by Ernesto Lecuona; Mi guitarra guajira, by Olga de Blanck, and La palma, by Rodrigo Prats. Also Experiencia, by Arturo R. Ojea; Canción del amor que vuelve, by Mario Fernández Porta; Un momento, by Julio Gutiérrez and Para cantarle a mi amor, by Orlando de la Rosa.

With the arrival of television in 1950, she was frequently contracted by stellar programs. Until 1953 she participated in zarzuela and operetta seasons at the Martí theater in Havana. In March 1953 she sang, at the Álvarez Quintero theaters in Madrid and Cómico in Barcelona, Lecuona's zarzuelas El cafetal and María la O. Those were her last performances in that theatrical genre. In October of that same year, in the Spanish capital, she recorded her first long-playing record, Rapsodia Cubana, for the Montilla label, with the Madrid Chamber orchestra, conducted by Fernando Mulens and Daniel Montoiro. Previously she had recorded several 78 rpm records for RCA Victor and Columbia labels in the United States, and Alkázar and Alhambra in Spain.

Rapsodia cubana is considered an exemplary record, both for the refinement of the interpreter's art and the beauty of the orchestral arrangements as well as for the chosen repertoire, composed of gems of Cuban song such as El arroyo que murmura, by Jorge Anckermann; Lágrimas negras, by Miguel Matamoros; Canto siboney and Damisela encantadora, by Ernesto Lecuona; Mírame así, by Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, and Lamento Cubano, by Eliseo Grenet.

A new milestone in the artist's recording career took place in 1955 with the appearance of Esther Borja sings in two, three and four voices—which represented an unprecedented fact in the history of recordings in the country—a record in which she demonstrated her absolute mastery of vocal technique by assuming the contralto, mezzo-soprano and soprano ranges in works by Sindo Garay, Jaime Prats, Manuel Corona, José Marín Varona, Félix B. Caignet and Ernestina Lecuona. The accompaniment was provided by Numidia Vaillant and Luis Carbonell, who selected the repertoire and arranged the voices.

Esther Borja's next recording production (like the previous one, for the Kubaney label), was an anthology of songs by Ernestina Lecuona, with the accompaniment of an orchestra conducted by Humberto Suárez. Between 1957 and 1958 two new records of hers appeared; in the first—shared with soprano América Crespo, and performing works by Gonzalo Roig—Esther Borja sings, among others, Dolor de amor and Nunca te lo diré, two of the songs that would accompany her throughout her career.

In the last long-playing record she recorded for Kubaney, Ayer y hoy, with orchestra conducted by Roberto Sánchez Ferrer, works by composers from the 1940s and 1950s were included, among them Osvaldo Farrés (Toda una vida), René Touzet (No te importe saber), Mario Fernández Porta (No te alejes) and Orlando de la Rosa (Para cantarle a mi amor).

After the revolutionary triumph of 1959, Esther Borja performed in several countries, including Ecuador, the defunct Soviet Union, China and Poland. She popularized the song Despertar, by Eduardo Saborit, dedicated to the Literacy Campaign and, in 1961, began hosting the program Álbum de Cuba, which remained on the air for twenty-three years. Her next record, which took the name of that television program and appeared in 1965 under the Egrem label, included works by Gonzalo Roig (Lloro aún al recordarte), Adolfo Guzmán (Lloviendo), Rodrigo Prats (Miedo al desengaño), Ernesto Lecuona (¿Por qué me has hecho llorar?) and Isolina Carrillo (Sombra que besa).

She offered numerous recitals in Havana venues such as the Auditorium Amadeo Roldán, the Bellas Artes theater, the National Library, and in theaters in other provinces, with Mario Romeu at the piano.

In 1972 she began to be accompanied by Nelson Camacho, a young pianist devoted to the works of Lecuona and other authors of the country. Together they prepared anthological concerts of Cuban song, with which they toured several cities.

Backed by Camacho at the piano, she made three long-playing records in 1975 for the Areito-Egrem label, with vocal and instrumental works by Ernesto Lecuona: Mi vida eres tú, Soy razonable, Te he visto pasar, Te vas, juventud, Canción del amor triste and Quisiera ser hombre (with verses by Juana de Ibarborou), as well as El jardinero y la rosa (with lyrics by the Álvarez Quintero brothers).

After more than half a century of singing, Esther Borja retired from singing in 1984. She continued giving lectures on Cuban song within and outside the country, and actively participated as a judge in radio festivals and as an advisor to cultural programs.

In 2002 she was awarded the National Prize for Music.

Her official discography is supplemented by hundreds of recordings made for radio and television, a collection that constitutes an exemplary repertoire, composed of notable works from all eras. Her interpretations range from El azra, by nineteenth-century composer Lico Jiménez, to songs by Alberto Villalón, Armando Oréfiche, César Portillo de la Luz, Ela O'Farrill, Ñico Rojas and Silvio Rodríguez.

Her hundredth anniversary was commemorated with tributes from artists and musicians on the island; she passed away days after turning 100 years old.