J.S. Bach, Igor Stravinsky, Witold Lutoslawski. Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Bela Bartok, Olivier Messiaen, the Old Ludwig Van ... Damaso Perez Prado, a bit of Aaron Copland, a soupcon of Pierre Boulez, Brian Eno, Progressive Rock Bands from the '70s (Yes, ELP, King Crimson, early [Peter Gabriel] Genesis...even some glam rock and, of course, Led Zep's Houses of the Holy), John Corigliano's score for Altered States, Krzysztof Penderecki for shits 'n' giggles. Stan Ridgway, Shirley Walker, Beny More, Edgar Meyer (both compositionally as well as for being the World's Finest Contrabassist), the Swingle Singers, E. Power Biggs, Anthony Newman and the immortal Glenn Gould. Some of my Brilliant Pianist friends: Gloria Cheng, Ralph Grierson and Mike Lang. Other composer friends: the late, great David Raksin, William Kraft, Earle Hagen, Don Davis, sound designer-guitarist-composer-wunderkind Buck Sanders, guitar artist Mike Miller and pianist/satirist Sandra Tsing Loh.
Speaking of truly inspired composers, there's Esa-Pekka Salonen (obviously a brilliant conducter as well). Earlier composers I admire: Josquin Desprez, Guillaume de Machaut and a slew of English Madrigalists (not to mention Monteverdi and Gesualdo), but no one's bound to read down THIS far.
Such a list could go on indefinitely, as I'm continually inspired by individuals whose musical acquaintance I've yet to make.
Born in New York City, Carlos Rodriguez studied composition at UCLA, where he was a first-prize winner in the Atwater Kent Competition for Composition. Also a prize winner in the NACUSA (National Association of Composers, USA) Competition for his Five Movements for Solo Amplified/Processed Flute, he has received an ASCAP Foundation Grant to Young Composers for his suite for solo cello with electronics, Crater Lizards. He was a Fellow in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Festival/Boulez L.A. and a recipient of a Brody Arts Fund Fellowship in the Performing Arts from the California Community Foundation. He was a founding member of the Los Angeles-based Lo Cal Composers, a non-profit New Music performance collective under whose auspices he premiered numerous works, including a short symphony for strings and percussion, a setting of texts by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda for soprano and large chamber ensemble, music for Brass and Timpani, and many compositions for electronically altered acoustic instruments, both in solo and chamber groupings.
His works have been featured at the New Music Los Angeles Festival, the SCREAM (Southern California Resource for Electro-Acoustic Music) Festival, UCLA's American Music Festival: a Retrospective, the USC Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Studio of Electronic Music in Hartford, Connecticut, and at Mobius in Boston. He has received commissions from the Debussy Trio ("De Tiempo y Agua y Olas..."), the Caliban Quartet of Toronto ("The Isle is Full of Noises"), and the L.A.-based eXindigo!, who premiered his setting of two poems by Charles Bukowski ("This Poet Bukowski").
The Los Angeles Philharmonic has commisioned three works from him: Pasacalle (1992), Fanfarria para Los Angeles (1994), and Fabulas (1996), all of which were premiered under its Music Director, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
His one act children's operetta, "Nerdlandia" (from a libretto by Gary Soto), commissioned by the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, was premiered in 1998 with additional Southern California performance tours by L.A. Opera in 1999.
His ballet score, "Ex Machina," commissioned and premiered by the Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet (formerly the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet), went on to England for five performances at London's prestigious Sadler's Wells in 2003. His music is published by Carl Fischer, LLC and Fatrock, Ink.
The three selections for cello above are the inner three movements (of five total) from his suite "Crater Lizards" for Solo Cello with Electronics, which was written for and performed in these recordings by Los Angeles Cellist Matt Cooker.
Jeffrey Krieger, Principal Cellist with the Hartford (CT) Symphony Orchestra has also performed "Crater Lizards" and discusses it along with six other works for "E-Cello" in an article written for the Internet Cello Society:
"Treat everyone you meet as if he or she were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do so with no thought of reward. Your life will never be the same."
Hope your week is filled with magic and blessings are falling upon your heart. Thank you for making my life beautiful! P. S. "You must look into people as well as at them" One love, Odilia
