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Rodrigo Barriga

DMA Student in Composition

Rodrigo Barriga is a Mexican composer and performer.

His work explores ensemble interaction and communication through the use of openness and guided improvisation. His compositions include text scores for open instrumentation as well as works for chamber and rock instruments.

Active in the Santa Cruz experimental scene, he performs solo and with the Rodrigo Barriga Ensemble. He has released two albums containing recordings of his compositions, Silere/Continuo (2019), and Quartet (2020).

Research Interests: 
  • Text scores
  • Open scores
  • Process-based musical structures
  • Fluxus
Selected Publications: 

Two of Barriga’s text scores will be included in the upcoming “A Year of Deep Listening,” a compilation of text scores by the Center of Deep Listening to be published on Terra Nova Press in Fall 2024.

Selected Performances: 

2023

  • This Never Happened: A performance of open and indeterminate musical works – A concert of music by the composer written in 2023. Music Center, UCSC.
  • Rodrigo Barriga Septet at Indexical, Santa Cruz – Performing a selection of graphic and text scores by the composer and other artists.

2020

  • Quartet, for open instrumentation – Performed by the spontaneous network for improvised music at the das kleine symposion festival in Vienna, Austria.
  • Solo Bass House Concert – Performance of works by fellow composers on electric bass
Honors and Awards: 

2022 – Art Dean’s Fund for Excellency and Equity, University of California Santa Cruz

2022 – Graduate Dean’s Travel Grant, University of California Santa Cruz

2019 – Margaret Lyon Prize for Outstanding Music Students, Mills College

Education and Training: 
MA in Music Composition, Mills College
BS in Music Production, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
Teaching Interests: 
  • Music production and recording
  • Improvisation
  • Musicianship