In 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving opera singer Gerardo José Ortega without a home. The tenor’s large family scattered across four states. He relocated to Kendall to live with his grandmother, Maria Otero, and together they began rebuilding their lives.
At the time, Ortega, who was 18, was already passionate about singing and writing. But he struggled with his sense of identity and confidence.
So, he took a job waiting tables at a sushi restaurant. Then, he fell in love with a man, but was hesitant to tell his grandmother.
When he finally worked up the courage, her response stunned him.
“The person that you are in your heart has no gender,” she told him. “What matters is that you find a good person, and you are a good person.”
Her unconditional love lifted his spirits and led him back to singing.
One of Ortega’s earliest memories is listening to his grandma’s records and finding himself entranced with the articulation of the lyrics.
“I just thought that it was so cool that the human voice could do that,” Ortega expressed. “I always wanted to do it, so I started singing a lot of jazz and Broadway early on.”
He joined choirs throughout middle and high school. A teacher, Deborah Upton, took notice of his talent and found him singing gigs at concerts around Jefferson Parish. He then joined a gifted program, excelled, and was accepted into Loyola University. From there, his career skyrocketed to everything from performing in musicals to becoming a voice teacher.
Throughout his career, Ortega has used his voice not just to perform, but to advocate.
“He is one of the most motivated and talented young artists I have had the pleasure to work with,” said Manny Perez, a Miami vocal coach and Ortega’s mentor. “He enriches our community with his artistic vision both through his vocal talent which touches so many audience members and through his productions and concerts.”
Ortega hopes to inspire the younger audiences to see themselves in the art form, just as he did at 18 in his hometown.
“If I can feel something so authentically and interpret that on stage, and someone in the back of the theater can feel something, and for a moment we’re feeling the same thing,” he said. “That is, I think, the closest I’ve ever felt to God. It’s magic.”
Fourteen years ago, he founded “The Downtowner Concert Series” at the First United Methodist Church of Miami. His goal is to help local artists grow comfortable performing in front of audiences.
“It takes months of practice and preparation,” said Ortega. “It’s putting your body in your voice and coaching it before you really do it in front of an audience.”
The series has a roster of 50 student singers, and performances blend poetry and music, with poems even crafted from audience suggestions. The goal is to create a safe space where students can grow, and audiences can fall in love with local talent.
“We need to make art more available and reliable for people,” Ortega says.
For the past ten years, Ortega and his students have served breakfast to over 140 unhoused individuals in Downtown Miami. They’ve also raised funds for organizations like Wounded Warriors and Alzheimer’s Association.
“These concerts often come out of my own pocket,” Ortega admits. “Sometimes we barely break even…But art can heal, and should always be used for activism.”
For Ortega, performance is both celebration and protest.
“What brings us all together is being artists that are a part of the LGBTQ community,” Ortega adds about the importance of the concert. “And especially with shutting down DEI, there’s been a lot of corporations that have followed suit over fear of political backlash.”
This Saturday, May 31 at 8:30 p.m., Ortega kicks off the Miami Beach Classical Music Festival at 12th Street and Ocean Drive with a Miami Pride Concert, where he and fellow opera singer Ashley Nuñez will perform. They will be accompanied by DJs and an electric violinist, Siobhan Cronin.
“It’s a huge opportunity for us to come together as the queer community and say ‘We’re here and we’re happy to be here,’’’said Ortega. “And I’m also part of the community as a classical singer, which oftentimes a lot of people don’t really get to partake in.”
Michael Rossi, director of the Miami Beach Classical Music Festival, who frequently includes Ortega in the festival, knew this was the best kickoff for the event.
“This is a celebration which can be seen as a beacon of pride across the ocean,” Rossi says. “We just want people to see that Miami is an inclusive and celebratory community.”
Ortega’s set features music from “West Side Story,” written by gay musicians and lyricists Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. There will also be traditional choices from Rodgers and Hammerstein, which Ortega assures will appeal to young, queer audiences.
The Miami Pride Concert will have an encore performance on June 1 at 8:30 p.m., with Ortega performing that day as well.
Both concert dates are free with RSVP.
While diversity will be prominent in the pieces themselves, Ortega encourages all members of the community, as well as allies, to attend and enjoy themselves in the moment.
This signifies the importance Ortega promotes on spreading awareness to celebrations like these for people of all identities to attend.
