Described by San Francisco Classical Voice, Boston Classical Review, and New York Concert Review as fiery, gripping, lyrical, eloquent, with a strong feeling for musical drama, and a gifted colorist with an abundance of emotional energy and the means to communicate it, Puerto Rican composer Dr. Iván Enrique Rodríguez’ (b.1990) music has been performed in P.R., the U.S., throughout North/South America and Europe in important venues and landmarks such as the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Harpa in Reykjavík, Iceland, Jordan Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, among others around the world. In Italy, his piece Madre Luna, received 2014’s Rimini International Choral Competition prize; and where his Crípticos Nos. 1, 2 & 3 acquire him one of 2015’s International Composition Competition Maurice Ravel awards. Rodríguez received the 2019’s prestigious ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Award and 2023 ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize, and has also been invited to participate as composer-in-residence for Sweden’s Lövstabruks Kammarmusikfestival, the historic Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music 2022 season, among others. His musical-social involvement was recognized Musical America Worldwide naming him one of the 2021 Top Professionals of the Year, and by Junior Chamber International with 2014’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World award in P.R.

Named in 2018 a Puerto Rican Heritage Ernesto Malave Scholar of the Arts by Comité Noviembre in N.Y.C., Rodríguez’s music is inspired by the factual human experience. His latest compositions have been focused on social justice and activism, having in their inner spirit his Puerto Rican musical heritage. One of his most recent orchestral pieces, A Metaphor for Power, has the current Latinx experience as well as the ongoing equality issues in the USA as a central thesis. A Metaphor for Power was selected for 2019’s prestigious Edward T. Cone Composition Institute to be premiered by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the renowned conductor, maestro Cristian Măcelaru. Rodríguez’s commitment to human rights, equality and, justice has led him to collaborate with the Vision Collective on their first German tour through Nigerian, Iraqi, Georgian, Syrian, and Turkish refugee camps. Additionally, his musical focus on his Puerto Rican heritage led Musica de Camara, Inc. to commission his Concerto for Puerto Rican Cuatro and Strings Orchestra premiered at El Museo del Barrio in N.Y.C. in 2016. Rodríguez’ works have been commercially recorded by acclaimed pianist and Billboard Chart-topping recording artist Laura Downes, the award winning new music ensemble Choral Arts Initiative, soprano Stephanie Lamprea, and trumpet player Luis “Perico” Ortiz.

Iván Enrique Rodríguez received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, studying with Alfonso Fuentes. His Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School, and his Doctor in Musical Arts degree in Juilliard’s prestigious C.V. Starr doctoral program under the tutelage of Melinda Wagner, where he has been recipient of the Gretchaninoff Memorial Prize, the Bernard Jaffe Scholarship and Commission, the James D. Rosenthal and Marvin Y. Schofer Scholarship, the King Doctoral Scholarship and, the C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellowship, among others.