The Dallas Symphony Orchestra Performs Rodríguez’ Symphonía No.2: Naa Okùnkùn ti Òkúta Dídán as winner of the ACO EarShot Program.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra hosts EarShot Readings on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 with four featured composers one of them being Iván Enrique Rodríguez. with his Symphony No.2: Naa Okùnkùn ti Ókúta Dídán. The composers will work throughout the day with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra musicians and DSO Assistant Conductor Maurice Cohn. At 2:00pm that afternoon, the DSO and Cohn perform all four works at Meyerson Symphony Hall, after which a recording will be provided to the participants and published online.

Program Notes

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.