Instrumentation: narrator & 3(3rd doubles to picc.).3(3rd doubles to eh.).3cl(2nd doubles Eb cl., 3rd doubles Bass cl.).3(3rd doubles to cbs.)-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-hp-pno/cel-str

• approx. duration: 15’ 00"

• The opportunity to embark on this journey landed on my desk just a day before my birthday in 2023. I recall the warm, engaging conversation I had with Ellen Primack, where the possibility of crafting this piece first arose. The suggestion she made struck a chord deep within me - she proposed delving into the narratives of immigration, refugees, and asylum seekers. Instantly, it resonated with my own journey. Despite being a United States citizen, I see myself as an immigrant, coming from Puerto Rico, a small island in the Caribbean under US control since 1898.

  Following the Fates, I found myself drawn to the shores of the USA, experiencing the familiar pangs of diaspora - the sensation of having a house but not a home, of planting roots in unfamiliar soil yet lacking a true sense of belonging, always haunted by the fear of not being fully welcomed. With my own experiences in mind, I knew this piece had to authentically echo the voices of those who have lived the immigrant, asylum seeker, and refugee experience.

  Where does a millennial like me uncover such profound stories? I turned to social media, placing ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, inviting refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants to share their truths. The response was overwhelming. As I delved into their narratives, I was instantly gripped by a common thread - the darkness of their journeys, the horrors of wars, the perilous dangers, the heart-wrenching loss of loved ones. I was paralyzed, unsure how to proceed when so many stories shared such harrowing details.

  Yet, amid the darkness, there was a glimmer of hope - a cautious, reserved hope. Hope in the promise of community, in the possibility of cultivating new roots in a soil of shared compassion and care. We all know how fragile hope can be, especially in the turbulent times we find ourselves in. And so, I wove together these stories, drawing from their shared experiences to craft the narrator’s script for the piece.

  It was an arduous task, navigating through the vivid and often traumatic tales that had been entrusted to me. But the same dream that propelled them to cast the dice of fate urged me to see this endeavor through. In the words of those who shared their stories with me: “We are here, and it is better than yesterday. But instead of better, it could be empathetic, humane, kind, compassionate, just... So, tell me... you... your choice could change Fate itself, should I dare to hope... again?”

• premiere: Casting the Dice was premiered by The Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in the summer of 2024 under the baton of maestro Cristian Mǎcelaru.

Instrumentation: 3(3rd doubles to picc.).3(3rd doubles to eh.).3cl(3rd doubles Bass cl.).3(3rd doubles to cbs.)-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-hp-pno/cel-str

• approx. duration: 15’ 00"

• After exhaustive afternoons contemplating how to use words to express this work, and several pages of absolute honesty writings, I face the same intense feelings and fears, as well as my passion for my Puerto Rican, Latin and Afro-Caribbean ancestry that initially fueled the creation of this piece. Naa Okùnkùn ti Òkúta Dídán (Yoruba for: The Darkness of the Shining Stone) is a symphony of classical proportions. Each of the movements represent the challenges, difficulties, and fears that have been intrinsic to my life. Experiences so complex and frightening that I can only express them through music. By using a single melody, fragmented into four sections that are ultimately unified in the main axiom of the symphony, I try to present a moment that daily visits my mind. During that enigmatic instant of the morning when, for the first time in the day, I confront my reflection in the mirror, a fatigued but stubborn question seizes my attention: Does everyone see what I see when I look at my face?... Perhaps I have received the answered multiple times, both physically and emotionally... However, it keeps visiting me every morning.

• premiere: Sinfonía No.2 was premiered by The Juilliard Orchestra in the spring of 2022.

Instrumentation: 3(3rd doubles to picc.).3(3rd doubles to eh.).3cl(3rd doubles Bass cl.).3(3rd doubles to cbs.)-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-hp-pno-str

• approx. duration: 13’ 00"

• “We hold these TRUTHS to be SELF-EVIDENT, that all men are created EQUAL, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

  This is how the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence reads...

  In our present-day (year 2018), this sentence invites us, and certainly myself, to think about our experience in this nation, The United States of America. It is unquestionably evident that the present-day of the American experience is governed by a perceivable, and unceasingly growing inequality. From the abysmal separation of social classes, to the renaissance of the historical but silenced racial discrimination. “A Metaphor for Power,” a title chosen from a James Baldwin quote, is a musical essay that attempts to address the present turbulence of ideologies, dreams and hard-hitting realities. The piece unfolds as an expedition through an expanse of troublesome experiences visited by fleeting and unsuccessful moments of hope. Through this journey of struggle, emotional sufferings and survival, the narrative is interrupted with ideological symbolisms that, in the aftermath of the affair, may have taken different meanings. As a Latino composer from Puerto Rico – and United States citizen by birth – this musical essay takes a more vivid significance as many of the unpleasant events have been part of my direct and personal American experience.

• premiere: From a nationwide call for scores, Iván Enrique Rodriguez and his orchestral work A Metaphor for Power were selected to participate in the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. A Metaphor for Power was premiered by the NJSO under the baton of internationally renowned maestro Cristian Măcelaru.

• Click Here for more info.

Instrumentation: Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, Tenor, Bass soloists – Chorus                                      3(3rd doubles to picc.).2.eh.2.bcl(doubles Eb cl.).2.cbn-6.3.3.1-timp(2 players).3perc-2hp-str

• approx. duration: 50’ 00"

• Amongst sleepless nights, hermit evenings of abstraction, between questions objected with more questions and tons of lacerating emotions, this Symphony was born. Composed in three "dramatic" parts, this work aims to pour those emotions as well as musically alleviating the centennial question that, by the hands of Shakespeare, Hamlet asks. “Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream.”

  • The symphony begins with a long orchestral episode where human strengths progressively fatigue opening the way to a sorrowful introspection. With the entry of the soloist singers begins the stormy period that define the presence of pain and exposes the fearsome limits of the "human condition".

  • The second part, for the chorus and soloists only, uses part of the text of the "Dies Irae" from the requiem mass. This part attempts to depict the arrival at the abysmal bottommost of anguish, that moment when an intense imploration is risen, when nothing is enough, when pain clouds consciousness and longs only to get relief.

  • The third and final part develops a stoic musical atmosphere where Hamlet's question is finally voiced by the soloists. This part attempts to present the musically lugubrious serenity of the consciousness in recognizing the inevitable human ending; ending that with panic is lived by the flesh. As we musically get closer to the human collapsing point, rest is blissfully presented.

  • The symphony concludes with a heroic and hopeful chorale declaring the end of the battle, the arrival of rest and the Perpetual Light’s eternal shelter of love.

• premiere: Sinfonía No.1 has not yet had a public premiere.

Instrumentation: 2(2nd doubles picc.).2.2(2nd doubles Eb clar.).2(2nd doubles cbn.)-4.2.3.1-timp.3perc-hp-str

• approx. duration: 12’ 00"

• Las Puertas de Cuerno y Marfil (The Gates of Horn and Ivory) is a symphonic poem based on the eponymous poetic image used by Homer in the nineteenth book of the Odyssey to differentiate the deceitful dreams from the real dreams. Real dreams are those who enter through the gate made of horn and deceitful dreams are those who enter through the gate made of ivory.

  Given the mystical and prophetic quality of dreams in Homer’s narrative (later used by multiple authors), this symphonic poem intends to build several contrasting sound worlds interacting with each other in the realm of dreams for the purpose of shaping, deceiving or auguring Fate. Despite the particular qualities of each sound worlds and musical motifs of the piece, the development and interaction of these, makes the interpretation of its origin progressively more obscure.

  The Gates of Horn and Ivory is a work that, immersing the listener into the realm of dreams, challenges his personal interpretation of reality against deception and how these elements determine Fate. Dares the listener to discern which dreams come through the Ivory door and which dreams come through the Horn door, and how these contours the present. 

• premiere: Las Puertas de Cuerno y Marfil was premiered by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra on the 2019-2020 concert season under the baton of maestro Maximiano Valdes.

• Click Here for more info

 Fortuna Victrix: a Tale of War and Triumph (2014)

Instrumentation: 3.(3rd double to picc).2.eh.2.bcl.2.cbn-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-hp-str

• approx. duration: 12' 00"

• Fortuna Victrix: a Tale of War and Triumph is an episodic tone poem that tries to describe the war of the soul against its greatest fears and frustrations. Fortuna Victrix is the materialization of the goddess Fortuna who brings and represents vicory in wars and conflicts. This symphonic poem begins marked Abstruce Times of Darkenss attempting to describe the soul mired in its deepest frustration and hunted by fears. The soul surrounded by the darkness of its fears, decides to confront them in battle. The battle, marked Times of Misfortune, Doom and Demise, has the soul crushed and almost ready to give up (marked The Summoning), but conjures Fortuna Victrix to bring victory to the horrible battle. The sections marked The Advent, With Immense Majesty, and Victorious represent the arrival of the goddess, her command and victory against the darkness. The final section, Ataraxia, finds the soul in a state of peace and victorious in battle against its fears and frustrations. This work attempts to represent through the goddess Fortuna Victrix the passions and dream that any being can possess in his soul, and that only they can fight and overcome any fear and frustration.

• premiere:  Fortuna Victrix: a Tale of War and Triumph has not yet had a public premiere.

Himno de Vida (2013)

Instrumentation:   picc.3.2.2.2-4.3.3.1-timp-2perc-hp-str

• approx. duration: 7' 00"

• Himno de Vida (Life's Hymn) is an orchestral overture composed for trumpeter, producer and arranger Luis “Perico” Ortiz for inclusion on the recording Tiempo de Amar. The album was produced specifically for the support of the San Jorge Children’s Foundation.

• premiere:  Himno de Vida was premiered and recorded in 2013 by the Ernesto Ramos Antonini Symphony Orchestra with Iván Enrique Rodriguez as conductor in the Jesús María Sanromá Symphony Hall at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico.