BIO
Known for his energetic rhythms, rich harmonic language, and striking colors, award-winning composer Josh Rodríguez (b. 1982) continues to gain recognition as an emerging composer and collaborator on a national and international scale. Born in Argentina to Colombian American parentage, and raised in Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States, Rodríguez's musical imagination has been formed by this bilingual multicultural heritage.
Rodríguez collaborates regularly with theatre and film directors and has received notable concert commissions in a wide range of musical genres: works include Dos Palabras (winner of the inaugural Springfield Chamber Chorus Composition Competition 2022), When Stone Becomes Forest (winner of THE AMERICAN PRIZE - Professional Band Division 2022), Partita Picosa (a 5-movement piece for solo piano), Contra Spem Spero (violin chamber concerto), and That Crazed Girl Improvising (piano trio), all which were finalists for the AMERICAN PRIZE (TIKAL, for concert band received Honorable Mention, 2021). His choral music has premiered at TMEA and SWACDA and is performed along with his concert band music by universities throughout the United States.
In addition to choral and band music, Rodríguez has written original theatre scores for Courtyard Shakespeare Festival's productions of Hamlet (2019), Much Ado About Nothing (2022), Richard III (2022), and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (2019), and CBU Theatre's productions of Love's Labour's Lost (2020) and She Stoops to Conquer (2021). He has also scored numerous independent film projects several of which have appeared in international film festivals and received special awards. His most recent film score is for a sci-fi adaptation Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST by Rebel Run Studios which received its European premiere at the RainDance Festival (2025).
Rodríguez (ASCAP) currently serves as Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Elmhurst University. He regularly contributes to various arts & culture blogs and is on the Leadership Team of Deus-Ex-Musica an ecumenical and interfaith initiative that brings musicians, clergy, and non-musicians together for concerts and conversations about the intersection of faith and new music.
Rodríguez earned his MM at the Cleveland Institute of Music and upon winning the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship moved west to study a doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research at UCLA culminated with his dissertation on Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera.
Rodríguez' music can be purchased through WALTON, LE DOR, MURPHY MUSIC, J W PEPPER, NORTH STAR MUSIC, and through the CONNECT form.
with composer JAC Redford and CBU faculty, 2017
with composer Paul Mealor, 2022
with composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, 2019
film scoring session, 2015
Springfield Chamber Chorus, Competition Winner 2022
PURCHASE
contact
If you are interested in performing my music or in collaborating on a new project – be it film, theater, ballet/dance, or songwriting –please email me through the following form.
