Armando Rodriguez Ruidiaz

Armando Rodríguez Ruidíaz (born Havana, 1951) is a Cuban composer.

He is a former student of the National School of Arts in Havana, Cuba. His compositions have been performed by numerous renowned performers and ensembles of critical acclaim and his work has been broadcast in the USA, Canada, Europe and Latin America. He has collaborated with visual artist Kate Rawlinson and with composer Gustavo Matamoros, with whom he co-founded the PUNTO Experimental Music Ensemble.

Biography

Rodríguez studied guitar with professor Marta Cuervo at the National School of Arts in Havana, Cuba. After graduating in 1972, he served in the same school as professor of guitar and music theory. He studied musical composition with José Ardévol and Roberto Valera. His compositions were performed in Cuba by numerous performers and ensembles that included the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba and the Cuban National Ballet. He received a National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) Music Composition Award in 1978. In 1985, Armando Rodríguez established his residence in the US, where he received an Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the State of Florida in 1991.

His music has been performed by renowned artists and ensembles such as the Philadelphia-based Relache, saxophonist Miguel Villafruela, double-bassist Luis Gómez-Imbert, pianists Roberto Urbay, Max Lifchitz and Beatriz Balzi, as well as guitarists Flores Chaviano and Carlos Molina, in events as the Bang on a Can Festival in New York City, Las Primeras Jornadas de Música Contemporánea de Sevilla, Spain, the São Paulo Biennial in Brasil, the Latinamerican and Caribbean Music Forums and the Subtropics Festival in Miami, Florida.

Most recently, Rodríguez has studied the Galician bagpipe. He has conducted extensive research on the Galician and Asturian music and their points of contact with Cuban music. The results of those researches have been published in articles such as: “Presencia de la Gaita en Cuba.” Rodríguez has also studied the history and technique of the bagpipes.

As a bagpipes specialist, he was invited to give a lecture on the history of this ancient instrument at the University of Miami in 2006.

See also

Music of Cuba

Compositions

A list of Rodriguez's works include:

  • Música para jóvenes guitarristas (Music for young guitarists) – Collection of didactical pieces for guitar – 1973
  • Intentos I and II – Guitar – 1974
  • Variaciones sobre un tema de Leo Brouwer – Piano – 1975
  • Boceto – Alto saxophone and piano – Dedicated to Miguel Villafruela – 1977
  • Preludio y Fuga – Vibraphone - 1977
  • Timbre-Espacio-Tiempo (Timbre-Space-Time) – Vibraphone - 1977
  • Expresiones – Alto saxophone solo – Dedicated to Miguel Villafruela - 1979
  • Linear – Open Instrumentation – 1990
  • Triangular – Open Instrumentation – 1990
  • Occupied Space – Guitar and Tape – 1990
  • Terra Incognita – Installation project in collaboration with artist Kate Rawlinson – Opus Art Studios – 1990
  • The Hexagonal Galleries – For three performers and electroacoustics - 1992
  • Morphing Textures - Electroacoustic media. 2004

References

Attribution
  • This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the Spanish Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the History section.

es:Armando Rodríguez Ruidíaz