The official website of ROBERT XAVIER RODRIGUEZ

April 2011

Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s latest commission, jointly from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, is to create an orchestral version of his theater piece The Dot and the Line, originally for narrator and chamber ensemble, with text by Norton Juster. The original chamber version of The Dot and the Line was commissioned and premiered by Voices of Change in 2005. The new orchestral version will be premiered on the DSO’s family concert series on March 25, 2012. Rodríguez’s A Colorful Symphony, based on Juster’s classic children’s book The Phantom Toll Booth, will be performed on the same concert. The narrator for The Dot and the Line will be Jamie Bernstein, who performed the chamber version in New York in April, 2010 on the Music from Copland House series.

Performances this month have included an all-Rodríguez concert of music for guitar at The University of Texas at Dallas, featuring the world premiere of Omaggio al Divino(2009), along with performances of Il Lamento di Tristano, Three Lullabies, Mirror Sonnets, Round of Endearments and Toccata, originally for guitar quartet and performed in a newly-revised transcription by Robert Guthrie for guitar solo. Also in April, Rebecca Duren, soprano and Michael McVay, piano gave the world premiere of Six Songs of E.E. Cummings (UT Dallas Musica Nova), students at the New England Conservatory gave the Boston premiere of the same work in its original version, for voice and marimba, and Enric Madriguera performed Three Lullabies at the University of Saõ Paolo in Brazil.

Rodríguez recently completed a piano reduction of Máscaras for cello and orchestra for an all-Rodríguez concert of music for cello and piano by cellist Jesús Castro-Balbi and pianist Gloria Lin at The University of Texas at Dallas on October 28. The concert will also feature Favola I, Tentado por la samba and the world premiere of a cello and piano version of Ursa, originally for double bass and orchestra. The program will subsequently be recorded for Albany Records. Other 2011 performances include We, the People (Dayton Philharmonic) and the chamber version of The Dot and the Line (Fulcrum Point Ensemble, Chicago).

Earlier this season, Meta 4 received its London premiere on October 18 and 19 at the Bloomsbury Theatre with dancers from the Yorke Dance Project and a string quartet from the Yehudi Menuhin School, with an additional performance on November 3 in High Wycombe. The work was commissioned in 1993 by the Mid-American Arts Alliance for a world tour by the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company, performing with a recorded performance by the Colorado Quartet. The London performances were the first with dancers and live quartet. On October 14, students from the Menuhin School also performed Meta 4, Lull-A-Bear for cello and piano and the piano solo version of Tango di Tango at Menuhin Hall in Surrey, with an additional performance of Meta 4 at the Guildhall School in London. Other performances of Rodríguez’s work in 2010 include Tango di Tango (orchestral) by the Philharmonisches Orchester Trier (Germany), Scrooge (VITA Academy, Sacramento, CA), Piñata (Jalisco Philharmonic, conducted by Hector Guzmán), El día del los muertos (University of Illinois Percussion Ensemble), Bachanale and Semi-Suite (Salkind International Piano Duo Festival), Tentado por la samba (Jesús Castro-Balbi and Gloria Lin on a NACUSA concert at UT Dallas) and Tango (Opera Theater of Northern Virginia, now called Aurora Opera Theater). The same company will produce the opera Frida in 2011-12.

The most recent recording of Rodríguez’s music is a 2011 Naxos release of El dia de los muertos by Frank Epstein and the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble. The two-volume set features the complete series of works commissioned for the ensemble by Brad and Dorothea Endicott from Rodríguez, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, Joan Tower, Fred Lerdahl, Gunther Schuller and Elliott Carter. Soon to be released will be Musica por un tiempo, by the San Antonio-based SOLI Chamber Ensemble, which commissioned the work and premiered it in 2009.

Other recent recordings include a 2010 Urtext CD of Tentado por la samba for cello and piano with cellist Carlos Prieto, who commissioned the work, and pianist Doris Stevenson and a 2009 Albany release of four Rodríguez chamber works: Meta 4, performed by the Colorado Quartet, Sor(tri)lège: Trio III and Trio II, performed by the Clavier Trio, and Trio I, performed by Voices of Change. Critical commentary for the chamber music recording includes, “…the stunner is the 1994 string quartet Meta 4… This piece fascinates me on several levels. First, its melodic material is florid, ornamented, and always singing. Second, the opening movement, which takes this melody from a cyclic unison section into increasingly rich counterpoint, is great structural drama. Third, the succeeding three movements are each a variation on that theme, giving the entire piece great cohesion. And finally, the music uses more repetition to enhance textures than might be the case for an earlier post-Impressionist composer; in other words, there is a fluid blend of post-minimalist with neo-Romantic technique…worth the price of admission, no matter what your taste. (Robert Carl, Fanfare); “Sor(tri)lège [is] substantial…effusive and joyous…the outer movements are splendid, arching out in vaulting melodic lines and enlivened with striking and unpredictable timbral combinations, urgent forward drive, and fresh, life-affirming ardor…could truly be described without condescension or apology as “modern romantic.” (Lehman, American Record Guide).

Earlier recordings of Rodríguez’s music include an all-Rodríguez CD on the First Edition label, in conjunction with the Meet the Composer/Exxon Orchestra Residency Program, in which Rodríguez served as Composer-in-Residence with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The CD features Oktoechos (Dallas Symphony, conducted by Eduardo Mata), Favola Boccaccesca (Louisville Symphony, conducted by Lawrence Leighton Smith) and The Song of Songs (Voices of Change, conducted by the composer). The CD is part of a three-disc release featuring works of Rodríguez, Joan Tower and Christopher Rouse. Two Albany releases feature Flight, the Story of Wilbur and Orville Wright, text by Sukey Smith, for narrator and orchestra, with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Neal Gittleman and actress Allison Janney (The West Wing) narrator and Tango, with Paul Sperry, tenor, and members of the San Diego Symphony, conducted by the composer.

Rodríguez’s music has been performed by conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Antal Dorati, Eduardo Mata, Andrew Litton, James DePriest, Sir Raymond Leppard, Keith Lockhart and Leonard Slatkin and such organizations as the New York City Opera, the National Opera of Mexico, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Boston Repertory Theater, American Music Theater Festival (now Prince Theater), Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Michigan Opera Theatre, Orlando Opera, The Aspen Music Festival, The Juilliard Focus Series, The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic, Toronto Radio Orchestra, The Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Knoxville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Boston and Chicago Symphonies, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra. Rodríguez’s chamber works have been performed in London, Paris, Dijon, Monte Carlo, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, The Hague and other musical centers. His music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer and is recorded on the Newport, Crystal, Orion, Gasparo, Urtext, Pro Arte Musicae, ACA, CRI (Grammy nomination), Albany, First Edition and Naxos labels. Rodríguez has served as Composer-in-Residence of the Dallas Symphony and, most recently, the San Antonio Symphony. He resides in Dallas, where he currently holds the endowed chair of University Professor of Music and is Director of the Musica Nova ensemble at The University of Texas at Dallas. He is also active as a guest lecturer and conductor.

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July 2009

Robert Xavier Rodríguez’ latest composition, Musica, por un tiempo (2008), received its premiere performances on March 16 and 17, 2009 by the SOLI Chamber Ensemble in San Antonio. SOLI commissioned the work for the ensemble’s core instrumentation of violin, clarinet, cello and piano. Critical commentary included, “Música, por un tiempo is a big, strong, passionate piece that pivots between two realms: one serene and pensive, built on a broad melody that Rodríguez pilfered from the bass line of Henry Purcell's song "Music, for a while," the other a hectic, complex rumba. The Purcell material…has a yearning, erotic character, which Rodríguez amplifies and deepens with all manner of textural and coloristic means. The rumba beat, treated to amazing contrapuntal intricacies, raises the erotic temperature to triple digits.” (Mike Greenberg, IncidentLight.com) “From its tempestuous opening through its introspective cello passages and on to its fiery Vivace alla rumba, the world premiere of Música, por un tiempo roused the spirit. The work...seethes with contradictions: turbulent, yet comforting; steamy, yet soothing; ornate, yet not at all fussy.. intoxicating sound...a powerful masterwork, masterfully played.” (Jennifer Roolf Laster, San Antonio Express-News) SOLI will repeat Música, por un tiempo, along with Rodríguez’s Les Niais Amoureux, in October, 2009 at The University of Texas at Dallas, with a recording to follow. The work was also performed by the Juilliard New Music Ensemble on July 5 at the opening of the Summergarden Series at the Museum of Modern Art.

Two newly-released recordings featuring Rodríguez’s music are the two-piano version of Bachanale, performed by Miwako Takeda and Nobuhito Nakai (Pro Arte Musicae, 2008.9.27) and Son Risa for solo harp, commissioned and performed by Elisabeth Remy Johnson (ACA, CM20103). Later this spring, Tentado por la samba for cello and piano will be released on an Urtext recording, featuring Mexican cellist Carlos Prieto, who commissioned the work, and pianist Doris Stevenson. Prieto gave the premiere performance of the work with Edison Quintana, piano on January, 24 (Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City); the American premiere followed with Harold Martina, piano on March 5 (Texas Christian University CelloFest).

Two additional recordings are in preparation. Frank Epstein and the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble have recently recorded El dia de los muertos for the Naxos label. The recording will feature the complete series of works commissioned for the ensemble by Brad and Dorothea Endicott from Rodríguez, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, Joan Tower, Fred Lerdahl, Gunther Schuller and Elliott Carter. Also in 2009-2010, Albany Records will release four Rodríguez chamber works: Meta 4, performed by the Colorado Quartet, Sor(tri)lège: Trio III and Trio II, performed by the Clavier Trio, and Trio I, performed by Voices of Change.

There will be seven productions of four of Rodríguez’s eight operas between 2008 and 2010. In March and April, 2009, the Austin Lyric Opera and the University of Texas at Austin collaborated to produce twenty-one performances of the one-act comic opera La Curandera on a double bill with Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne. Critical commentary included, “Comic Opera Set in Mexico finds Composer Robert X. Rodríguez in Top Form…a handsomely-crafted, audience-pleasing romp…the laughs are abundant and honestly obtained, and there is much pleasure to be had from the composer’s sheer mastery of his craft. Rodríguez appropriates some familiar melodies from Mexican folk tradition, freshens them up and weaves them through deftly made, rhythmically vibrant original material.” (Mike Greenberg, IncidentLight.com) Opera Colorado, which commissioned the work in 2006, toured it for the third consecutive season in the spring of 2008, including a special presentation on June 14 at the National Performing Arts Conference in Denver. La Curandera is scheduled for a subsequent production and a recording by the Sacramento Opera in 2010. Other opera performances include Monkey See, Monkey Do in April, 2008 (The Hudson Valley Vagabond Players) and Frida in August, 2009 (Society for New Music, Cazenovia Festival, Syracuse). The new Spanish translation of Frida will be performed in 2010 for the second time at the Festival de Mayo in Guadalajara, Mexico. Also in 2010, the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia will produce Tango.

Other recent and upcoming performances of Rodríguez’s work are A Colorful Symphony (National Symphony of Chile), Pinata (Dayton Philharmonic and Phoenix Symphony), The Dot and the Line (Southern Methodist University), Fantasia Lussuriosa (Jeff Lankov, piano; New York University and Helene Wickett, piano; Pro Musicis Series, Salle Cortot, Paris), Semi-Suite (Shields-Collins Bray, piano; Cliburn Concerts; Fort Worth), Sor(tri)lège: Trio III(Clavier Trio, Music in the Mountains), The Song of Songs (Susan Carter, soprano; Texas Tech University), Lulla-Bear (University of Southern California) and El dia de los muertos (New England Conservatory; Frank Epstein, conductor).

Recordings of Rodríguez’s music also include an all-Rodríguez CD on the First Edition label, in conjunction with the Meet the Composer/Exxon Orchestra Residency Program, in which Rodríguez served as Composer-in-Residence with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The CD features Oktoechos (Dallas Symphony, conducted by Eduardo Mata), Favola Boccaccesca (Louisville Symphony, conducted by Lawrence Leighton Smith) and The Song of Songs (Voices of Change, conducted by the composer). The CD is part of a three-disc release featuring works of Rodríguez, Joan Tower and Christopher Rouse. Two recent Albany releases feature Flight, the Story of Wilbur and Orville Wright, text by Sukey Smith, for narrator and orchestra, with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Neal Gittleman and actress Allison Janney (The West Wing) narrator and Tango, with Paul Sperry, tenor, and members of the San Diego Symphony, conducted by the composer.

Rodríguez’s music has been performed by conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Antal Dorati, Eduardo Mata, Andrew Litton, James DePriest, Sir Raymond Leppard, Keith Lockhart and Leonard Slatkin and such organizations as the New York City Opera, the National Opera of Mexico, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Boston Repertory Theater, American Music Theater Festival (now Prince Theater), Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Michigan Opera Theatre, Orlando Opera, The Aspen Music Festival, The Juilliard Focus Series, The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic, Toronto Radio Orchestra, The Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Knoxville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Boston and Chicago Symphonies, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra. Rodríguez’s chamber works have been performed in London, Paris, Dijon, Monte Carlo, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, The Hague and other musical centers. His music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer (www.schirmer.com/composers/Rodríguez/bio.html) and is recorded on the Newport, Crystal, Orion, Gasparo, Urtext, Pro Arte Musicae, ACA, CRI (Grammy nomination), Albany and First Edition labels. Rodríguez has served as Composer-in-Residence of the Dallas Symphony and, most recently, the San Antonio Symphony. He resides in Dallas, where he currently holds the endowed chair of University Professor of Music and is Director of the Musica Nova ensemble at The University of Texas at Dallas. He is also active as a guest lecturer and conductor.

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January, 2008

Mexico's leading newspaper, Reforma, has named Robert Xavier Rodríguez 2007's "Composer of the Year." Critic Lazaro Azar also named Rodríguez's opera Frida the best opera of the year, following its Mexican premiere at the Festival de Mayo in Guadalajara. The opera will be repeated in Mexico in the 2008-09 season. Also in 2008, the Clavier Trio (violinist Arkady Fomin, cellist Jesús Castro-Balbi and pianist David Korevaar) gave the premiere of Rodríguez's third piano trio, Sor(tri)lège, commissioned by the University of Texas at Dallas, on February 8 at UT Dallas and February 10 in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. They will give a third performance during the summer Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, Colorado. Of the Carnegie concert, Anthony Aibel, in the New York Concert Review, wrote, "The audience was rewarded with the New York premiere of Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s Sor(tri)lège: Trio III. This memorable work has intricate instrumental interplay and soaring, inspired melodies that keep listeners involved. The music was sometimes dance-like with Latin-American flavoring; good news for contemporary music: the audience member next to me was smiling and tapping her foot throughout most of the performance. But the music’s accessibility is not at the expense of solid craftsmanship. Clavier Trio played it with impressive virtuosity, enormous dedication and joy. One should hope to see this work appear regularly."

On March 16, 2009, Musica por un tiempo, for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, commissioned by the SOLI ensemble, will receive its premiere performance in San Antonio. Two new commissions include scores for VideoArt films on the U.S. Diplomacy Center and the San Francisco U.S. Mint. Also, during 2008-2009, four of Rodríguez's operas will have productions. In addition to Frida, there will be productions of La Curandera (Opera Colorado - at the National Performing Arts Conference - and Austin Lyric Opera), Monkey See, Monkey Do (Hudson Vagabond Puppets - Blauvelt, NY), and Tango (Opera of Northern Virginia). Also this season, Mexican cellist Carlos Prieto will record and give the premiere performance of Tentado por la samba, for cello and piano, which Prieto commissioned on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Additional 2008 performances of Rodríguez's works will include Gambits (SOLI - San Antonio), El dia de los muertos (DePauw University), Fantasia Lussuriosa and excerpts from Estampie (Jeff Lankov, piano, New York University).

Recent recordings of Rodríguez’s music include an all-Rodríguez CD on the First Edition label, in conjunction with the Meet the Composer/Exxon Orchestra Residency Program, in which Rodríguez served as Composer-in-Residence with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The CD features Oktoechos (Dallas Symphony, conducted by Eduardo Mata), Favola Boccaccesca (Louisville Symphony, conducted by Lawrence Leighton Smith) and The Song of Songs (Voices of Change, conducted by the composer). The CD is part of a three-disc release featuring works of Rodríguez, Joan Tower and Christopher Rouse. Two recent Albany releases feature Flight, the Story of Wilbur and Orville Wright, text by Sukey Smith, for narrator and orchestra, with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Neal Gittleman and actress Allison Janney (The West Wing) narrator and Tango, with Paul Sperry, tenor and members of the San Diego Symphony, conducted by the composer.

Rodríguez’s music has been performed by conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Antal Dorati, Eduardo Mata, Andrew Litton, James DePriest, Sir Raymond Leppard, Keith Lockhart and Leonard Slatkin and such organizations as the New York City Opera, the National Opera of Mexico, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Boston Repertory Theater, American Music Theater Festival (now Prince Theater), Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Michigan Opera Theatre, Orlando Opera, The Aspen Music Festival, The Juilliard Focus Series, The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic, Toronto Radio Orchestra, The Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Knoxville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Boston and Chicago Symphonies, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra. Rodríguez’s chamber works have been performed in London, Paris, Dijon, Monte Carlo, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, The Hague and other musical centers. His music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer (www.schirmer.com/composers/Rodríguez) and is recorded on the Newport, Crystal, Orion, Gasparo, Urtext, CRI (Grammy nomination), Albany and First Edition labels. Rodríguez has served as Composer-in-Residence of the Dallas Symphony and, most recently, the San Antonio Symphony. He resides in Dallas, where he currently holds the endowed chair of University Professor of Music and is Director of the Musica Nova ensemble at The University of Texas at Dallas. He is also active as a guest lecturer and conductor.

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January 2007

All three of Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s operas on Hispanic themes will be performed during the 2006-07 season. Frida, based on the life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, will have its Mexican premiere by the Festival de Mayo in Guadalajara on May 25, 2007. The libretto, by Hilary Blecher and Migdalia Cruz, will be sung in a new Spanish translation by Josefina García. Grace Echauri will perform the role of Frida. The highly-acclaimed opera has had three European productions (Vienna Schauspielhaus, Recklinghausen and Nordhausen) as well as performances by such companies as Prince Theater (Philadelphia), American Repertory Theater (Boston), Houston Grand Opera and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Critical acclaim for the opera has included “Enormously charismatic, varied, full of nuance... one of the best things to have been seen on any Viennese stage in recent years... beautiful, poetic... Five stars deluxe.” (Der Standard) and, “...This is the stuff of which legends are made...” (Neuen Volksblatt) and “Best Opera/Musical theater of 1991” (The New York Times). The composer will also conduct a performance of the Concert Suite from Frida with Alba Quezada and the Musica Nova ensemble at the University of Texas at Dallas in April, 2007.

La Curandera, with libretto by Mary Medrick, will be performed at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma, CA in March, 2007 in a production directed by Fred Curchack. Based on the same story as Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, in a Mexican setting, the opera was commissioned by Opera Colorado and premiered in Denver in 2006. Opera Colorado will repeat the production in a series of touring performances in 2007. The opera’s premiere was hailed as “…a revelation” (Variety), “…a mini-masterpiece…a work of overpowering originality…Richly witty in words and music, La Curandera has the markings of lasting appeal…a work both demanding and accessible and of a charm that makes it irresistible.” (Boulder Daily Camera), “…an entertaining, family-friendly treat.” (The Denver Post).

Rodríguez’s popular children’s opera Monkey See, Monkey Do, also with libretto by Mary Medrick, will have touring performances in 2006-2007 by the Hudson Vagabond Puppets and Opera Grand Rapids. Commissioned by the Dallas Opera, Monkey See, Monkey Do continues to be one of the most frequently–performed contemporary operas in the United States, with over 2000 performances to date throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

During 2006, Rodríguez celebrated the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth with premieres of two major Mozart-based works commissioned for the occasion. The Dallas Symphony performed Musical Dice Game, conducted by Andrew Litton. The work is a set of variations for two string quartets and two string orchestras on themes by Mozart. Critical acclaim included “Dice Game a Winner (headline) …has a ‘spiraling’ feel that gave it an exceptional sense of forward motion. It was one of those rare new compositions that audiences will want to hear again.” (Fort Worth Star Telegram). A second round of performances followed at the Dayton Philharmonic, conducted by Neal Gittleman. The Dayton Philharmonic also commissioned Rodríguez’s Agnus Dei for Mozart’s unfinished Mass in C-Minor. Following the premiere performance, the Dayton Daily News wrote “…not only complemented and 'completed' Mozart's unfinished Mass...but will certainly have continued life as part of the symphonic repertoire.”

Additional premieres of commissioned works during 2006-07 include El dia de los muertos, commissioned by Bradford and Dorothea Endicott for Frank Epstein and the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble. Following its premiere in Boston in December, 2006, it will be repeated at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and recorded, with a subsequent performance by the Tanglewood Percussion Ensemble in July. Canción de los niños for children’s chorus and orchestra, commissioned by Brooks Jones, will be premiered in November, 2007 by the Orquesta Juvenil de Tepoztlán, Mexico. Son Risa for solo harp, commissioned by Elisabeth Remy Johnson, was premiered in July, 2006 at the American Harp Society National Conference in San Francisco, and, in 2008, cellist Carlos Prieto will give the premiere performance of Tentado por la samba, for cello and piano, which Prieto commissioned on the occasion of his 70th birthday. In addition, Rodríguez recently completed The Versatility Rag, commissioned by Barbara Munford for Dr. Robert Munford. In progress is Rodríguez’s third piano trio, Sor(tri)lège, commissioned by the University of Texas at Dallas for the Clavier Trio for premiere performances in February, 2008 at UT Dallas and in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Other performances of Rodríguez’s works during 2006-07 include A Colorful Symphony (Kansas City Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic), Con Flor y Canto (San Antonio Mastersingers), Decem Perfectum (New England Conservatory), The Dot and the Line (Dayton Philharmonic, Bowdoin Festival, SMU), Tango (New Ear Ensemble, Kansas City), El dia de los muertos (SMU Percussion Ensemble), Chronies (Musiqa, Houston), Bachanale for two pianos (Takeda and Nakai, Tokyo), Semi-Suite for piano four-hands (Cliburn Concerts, Ft. Worth), Fantasia Lussuriosa (UT Dallas - Musica Nova, Jeff Lankov, piano) and a concert in July, 2006 at Ft. Worth’s Museum of Modern Art featuring Rodríguez’s complete works for guitar (Toccata for Guitar Quartet, Three Lullabies, Il Lamento di Tristano and a transcription of J.S. Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of A Beloved Brother).

Rodríguez’s music has been performed by conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Antal Dorati, Eduardo Mata, Andrew Litton, James DePriest, Sir Raymond Leppard, Keith Lockhart and Leonard Slatkin and such organizations as the New York City Opera, the National Opera of Mexico, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Boston Repertory Theater, American Music Theater Festival (now Prince Theater), Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Michigan Opera Theatre, Orlando Opera, The Aspen Music Festival, The Juilliard Focus Series, The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic, Toronto Radio Orchestra, The Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Knoxville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Boston and Chicago Symphonies, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra. Rodríguez’s chamber works have been performed in London, Paris, Dijon, Monte Carlo, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, The Hague and other musical centers. His music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer (www.schirmer.com/composers/Rodríguez) and is recorded on the Newport, Crystal, Orion, Gasparo, Urtext, CRI (Grammy nomination), Albany and First Edition labels. Rodríguez has served as Composer-in-Residence of the Dallas Symphony and, most recently, the San Antonio Symphony. He resides in Dallas, where he currently holds the endowed chair of University Professor of Music and is Director of the Musica Nova ensemble at The University of Texas at Dallas. He is also active as a guest lecturer and conductor.