Students from the University’s Advanced Orchestra and Chamber Music Ensemble perform with UT Dallas faculty and other professional musicians under the direction of composer-conductor Robert Xavier Rodríguez.

Bios

Robert Xavier Rodríguez is “one of the major American composers of his generation” (Texas Monthly).  His music has been described as “romantically dramatic” (Washington Post), “richly lyrical” (Musical America) and “glowing with a physical animation and delicate balance of moods that combine seductively with his all-encompassing sense of humor” (Los Angeles Times).

Rodríguez’s works have been performed by conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Antal Dorati, Eduardo Mata, James DePriest, Sir Raymond Leppard, Keith Lockhart, Andrew Litton and Leonard Slatkin and by such organizations as the New York City Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Vienna Schauspielhaus, Israel Philharmonic, Mexico City Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and the Seattle, Houston, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Baltimore, St. Louis, National, Boston and Chicago Symphonies.

He has studied with Jacob Druckman, Elliot Carter and Nadia Boulanger, and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Prix Lili Boulangerand the Prix de Composition Prince Pierre de Monaco. Rodríguez has served as Composer-in-Residence with the San Antonio Symphony and the Dallas Symphony.  Seventeen CDs featuring his music have been recorded (1999 Grammy nomination), and his music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer. He is a University Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he holds an Endowed Chair of Art and Aesthetic Studies and is Director of the Musica Nova ensemble.

Michael McVay holds degrees from the University of Missouri/Kansas City Conservatory (piano), the Royal College of Music in London (piano) and the University of North Texas (music theory/piano). He performs regularly in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in a variety of styles and venues, and his CD Michael McVay and Friends can be heard on Dallas radio station KAAM. Previous academic positions include Lecturer at LaSalle/SIA College of the Arts in Singapore, Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Austin College, visiting faculty member in music theory at the University of North Texas and Staff Accompanist at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. McVay is currently Clinical Assistant Professor at UT Dallas, where he also teaches music theory and serves as pianist and Assistant Director of the Musica Nova ensemble.

For more information contact:
Arts and Performance Office
utdarts@utdallas.edu
972-UTD-ARTS