This 2021 distinction applauds the heroes of the industry, the people who saved the day during the pandemic. Rodríguez has been honored for providing works that overtly confront racism, discrimination, the collective imaginary of race as well as providing music for people hospitalized suffering from the COVID virus.
Read MoreProgramming being one of the most powerful tools an orchestra can use to empathize, represent, and contribute to their community, I decided to study the last eight years of programming of the New York Philharmonic. I settled on studying NYPhil’s programming firstly because of its influential power in the classical music environment, its worldwide leadership and acclaim. Secondly, well, because it’s my backyard orchestra. After going through almost 800 pieces, the result, I must say, was not surprising, although no less hurtful.
Read MoreFrom all of these things emerged, Greg’s, Nathaniel’s, and I new collaboration, Mother of Exiles. They asked me to compose a new art song using Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus. When they asked me to do this, I honestly felt small and felt chills go down my spine. Lazarus’s poem is a titan in USA’s literature history. For the sake of anything divine, part of the poem is chiseled in the Statue of Liberty! I was “shooketh.”
Read MoreMy second symphony is an offering to my Afro-Caribbean roots through the filter of the experiences I, as well as my fellow Puerto Ricans, have faced in this country.
Read MoreBeing myself a Latino composer, member of the already big and growing community of non-white classical musicians and, knowing the general values and ideologies shared between the classical musicians community, made me question the lack of diversity in musical institutions.
Read MoreOnline home of composer and conductor Ivan E. Rodriguez
