n 1965, New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Music offered him a scholarship. He immediately moved to the United States to study with Vernon de Tar and Bronson Reagan. Three years later, Hector won the National Improvisation Contest sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, thereby launching his outstanding professional concert career.

Besides performing many concerts in the United States and throughout Mexico and Latin America, Hector has also played in Australia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan. Notable venues have included the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Crystal Cathedral, Spivey Hall, Constitution Hall, Balboa Park, and Dallas’s Myerson Concert Hall. He was also the featured organist in the 1978, 1980 and 1984 Manchester (UK) International Organ Festival.

In 1988, after years of performing in the United States, Hector was invited to play again in Argentina. Upon arriving, he was treated like a national hero with SRO concerts attended by celebrities and heads of state, as well as featured on many radio television shows.

Hector has also performed as guest soloist with many orchestras throughout the world, including the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Fort Wayne Symphony, the Dover-New Philadelphia Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Amsterdam Baroque Ensemble, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Pasadena Symphony. (Composer Robert Vandall described Hector's performance with the Tuscarawas Philharmonic as "an opportunity to hear and see greatness.") His collaboration with the Pasadena Symphony produced a limited Gold CD edition featuring Hector in the Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3.

In 1992, Hector was featured at the American Guild of Organists convention at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta performing the world premiere of a commissioned work written by William Albright. Later, from this same stage, Hector performed on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion.” According to Keillor, Hector "literally stopped the show!"

In 1996, again in Atlanta, Hector performed at Spivey Hall in connection with the Olympic games, receiving many standing ovations and rave reviews. In 2000, Hector performed a solo memorial concert in New York City’s St. Paul the Apostle Church as a tribute to his greatest hero and role model, organist Virgil Fox. He played a second Virgil Fox Memorial Concert at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, in 2004. Hector was invited again to perform for the American Guild of Organists National Convention in 2002, where his transcription of Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" spontaneously brought the large audience of peers to their feet. Again, in 2004, his appearance before the Guild’s National Convention in Los Angeles was considered an historic triumph by 2,200 cheering organists, who gave him four standing ovations in 45 minutes.

In addition to performing at concert halls throughout the world and dedication recitals in churches and symphony halls, Hector consults on the design of new and refurbished pipe and electronic organs. He currently works with, and concertizes and gives master classes for, Roland Organs. Meanwhile, Rodgers Instruments is completing a large touring organ for his use throughout the world.

Hector continues to thrill audiences with both solo classical literature and his own orchestral transcriptions, now released on DVD and more than 20 classical, contemporary, and film score CDs.

Although he is most famous for his prodigious technical proficiency, Hector’s amazing affect on audiences has made many of the most sophisticated and demanding organ aficionados claim that Hector Olivera is one of the greatest organists in the world today.

Internationally acclaimed organist Hector Olivera is available to perform in your upcoming season.