Rodrigo Constanzo
Biography
Rodrigo Constanzo is an experimental composer and performer living in Manchester, England. He has performed as a solo musician, or as part of various groups for the majority of his life. The most recent being as part of the SOUND festival in Scotland and speaking at the GEM Days festival in Huddersfield. He is also slated to perform at the FUTURSONIC festival in Manchester in 2009.
He began his studies in music at the age of four, studying piano with his grandmother, formerly a piano teacher at the Conservatory of Cuba. In high school he formed, and directed, the South Miami Senior High School Rock Band, which performed regularly at school functions. He graduated in 1994 and went on to study at Miami Dade College under Jane Pyle, Jo Foster, and Linda Fowler. While there, Rodrigo won, and placed in, several composition competitions, met future collaborators, and eventually earned an Associate of Arts degree in Music.
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In 2004, Rodrigo formed Failure, Arc of Beauty with Gilbert Kong. The group would eventually grow to include his future wife, Angela Guyton, whose participation allowed for the exploration of the ways sight and sound could interact on a performance level. This is something Rodrigo always had an interest in and worked hand in hand with his passion for improvisation. It was improvisation which would lead to the formation of MUS2301, an improvisation-based group/class that continued in Miami until Rodrigo and Angela moved to Manchester, England in 2007.
Although he is classically trained, his primary interest lies in experimental music and improvisation. For the past ten years he has built and performed using instruments he has built himself, ranging from modified electronic toys, to an electro-acoustic stringed instruments. He is as eclectic a composer as he is a performer, believing that each composition is self-standing, with each idea being a unique one, and demanding a unique outcome. The one thing that ties most of his work together is the surrendering of part of his control as a composer, be it in aleatoric or arbitrary decisions at the composition level, or through largely improvised forms at the performance level. This can manifest itself as a graphic score for large ensemble, an intricate string quartet, or a simple folk song.
He is currently involved in several projects, the main ones being performing with Takahashi's Shellfish Concern, an improv based performance-art group, and a minimalist, math/pop band, Deaf To Van Gogh's Ear.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.