Mexican Composer Gabriela Ortiz Talks Rise to Fame, Fighting Eurocentrism in Classical Music at Rockefeller Center Event

When Harvard Music Professor Alejandro L. Madrid invited Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz to speak at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies two months ago, he hoped the talk would platform an artist just starting to receive international recognition for her combination of classical music with Latin influences.

But Madrid had no idea, he joked at the beginning of Ortiz’s talk on Wednesday evening, that she would arrive on the stage with three new Grammy awards for her recent album, Revolución Diamantina, and a new prominence — both domestic and abroad — as a result.

“Little did I know that since I talked to her and extended an invitation about two months ago, she would burst into the mainstream with a blinding flash,” Madrid said.

Ortiz, who at first received a cold reception from the classical community because of the Mexican folk influences prominent in her work, is now a face of the Latin American classical movement. Her most recent album is a “politically engaged ballet” inspired by Mexico’s 2019 “Glitter Revolution,” a feminist uprising against pervasive violence toward women.

Ortiz’s Revolución Diamantina fuses contemporary classical music with the rhythms of Mexican folk traditions and explores the theme of resistance using techniques such as prominent rhythmic patterns and percussive accents. A defining feature of the album is its use of polyrhythms, of which the complexity and energy mirror the character of the protest movement the album stems from.

During her talk, Ortiz lambasted the Eurocentrism she encountered within the field of classical music, which she said prioritized European classical traditions over the “very diverse,” “multicultural,” and “huge spectrum of composers with many different aesthetics” of Mexico and Latin America.

She cited her experience being required to study overwhelmingly European composers while earning her Ph.D. at London’s City University, with nothing in the required curriculum on her own region of origin.

Ortiz also recalled a story about a Polish composer who delivered a lesson to her class while visiting her university. When she spoke with the composer afterward, she was taken aback to learn he knew little of classical music in Mexico and Latin America.

“He didn’t know anything about Latin America,” she said, calling the situation “crazy.”

“He’s coming to my country, with no interest about what’s happening in Mexico,” she added. “We have to study European composers, we know who they are — but they don’t know anything about Latin America.”

The composer’s rise was kickstarted just one year ago by a commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra to write the work “Téenek — Invenciones de Territorio,” which elevated her international profile with its positive reception. Ortiz currently serves as the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall, in which role she will present four new works, collaborate with world-renowned artists, and engage in educational initiatives.

At the 67th Grammy Awards in early February, Ortiz’s album “Revolución Diamantina” won awards in Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Compendium, and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The achievements marked a milestone for Latin American composers in a field long dominated by Europeans.

Ortiz now also works as a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which she called an “important part” of her life.

“To write music is a very isolated job,” she said. “Teaching becomes a place where I can share ideas with my students, and they can share their own ideas with me.”