Gabriela Ortiz
Short bio:
Born to a musical family in Mexico City, Gabriela Ortiz has always felt she didn’t choose music—music chose her. Her parents were founding members of Los Folkloristas, a renowned ensemble dedicated to performing Latin American folk music. While playing charango and guitar with her parents’ group, she was also learning classical piano. Her formal studies began under esteemed Mexican composers Mario Lavista, Federico Ibarra, and Daniel Catán. Later, she continued her studies in Europe, earning a master’s degree at Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the guidance of Robert Saxton, and earning a doctorate in composition and electronic music from London’s City University under the guidance of Simon Emmerson.
Ortiz’s music incorporates seemingly disparate musical worlds, from traditional and popular idioms to avant-garde techniques and multimedia works. This is, perhaps, the most salient characteristic of her oeuvre: an ingenious merging of distinct sonic worlds. While Ortiz continues to draw inspiration from Mexican subjects, she is interested in composing music that speaks to international audiences.
A landmark achievement in her career came in 2025 when her portrait album Revolución diamantina, recorded by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, won three GRAMMY Awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition for the title track. This historic recognition solidified her as a leading voice in contemporary classical music.
From massive works for orchestra and chorus such as Yanga (2019), concertos as Fractalis (2022), politically charged operas as Only the Truth (2008), magical chamber works as Altar de muertos (1997), and intimate solo pieces as Canto a Hanna (2005), Ortiz’s music reveals a sophisticated compositional technique and a meticulous attention to rhythm and timbre. Her work has been performed by prestigious orchestras and ensembles such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra.
Ortiz’s many accolades include the 2022 Bellas Artes Gold Medal, Mexico’s National Prize for Arts and Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright-García Robles Fellowship, and two Latin GRAMMY nominations. She has previously served as composer-in-residence with Carnegie Hall and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. She is a member of the Academy of the Arts and has been inducted into El Colegio Nacional, Mexico’s most esteemed circle of intellectuals.
Ortiz is currently composer-in-residence at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonia in London, and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. She also teaches composition at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. Her music is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Biography written with contribution from Ana Alonso Minutti
Long bio:
Born to a musical family, Gabriela Ortiz has always felt she didn’t choose music—music chose her. Her parents were founding members of the group Los Folkloristas, a renowned music ensemble dedicated to performing Latin American folk music. Growing up in the cosmopolitan Mexico City, Ortiz’s music education was multifaceted. While playing charango and guitar with her parents’ group, she was also learning classical piano. Ortiz began her composition studies under the mentorship of renowned Mexican composers Mario Lavista, Federico Ibarra, and Daniel Catán. Later, she continued her studies in Europe, earning a master degree at Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the guidance of Robert Saxton, and earning a doctorate in composition and electronic music from London’s City University under the guidance of Simon Emmerson.
Ortiz’s music incorporates seemingly disparate musical worlds, from traditional and popular idioms to avant-garde techniques and multimedia works. This is, perhaps, the most salient characteristic of her oeuvre: an ingenious merging of distinct sonic worlds. While Ortiz continues to draw inspiration from Mexican subjects, she is interested in composing music that speaks to international audiences.
Gustavo Dudamel, a longtime champion of Ortiz’s music, stated: “Gabriela is one of the most talented composers in the world—not only in Mexico, not only in our continent—in the world. Her ability to bring colors, to bring rhythm and harmonies that connect with you is something beautiful, something unique.” Under Dudamel’s direction, the Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned and premiered seven works by Ortiz in recent years, including her ballet Revolución diamantina, the violin concerto Altar de Cuerda, and Kauyumari for orchestra. Dudamel introduced the piece Téenek (“one of the most brilliant I have ever directed”) to German audiences in 2023, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2024 soloist Alisa Weilerstein joined Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the world premiere of Ortiz’s new cello concerto Dzonot.
A landmark achievement in her career came in 2025 when her portrait album Revolución diamantina, recorded by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, won three GRAMMY Awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition for the title track. This historic recognition solidified her as a leading voice in contemporary classical music.
Ortiz’s music has been commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestra of Bretagne, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra; Esa Pekka Salonen, Louis Langrée, and Carlos Miguel Prieto, among others. She has also collaborated with practically every orchestra, conductor, soloist, and ensemble in Mexico.
Her scores for dance, film, and theater—including the operas Only the Truth, Ana and her Shadow, and Firefly—frequently explore complex contemporary themes, like environmental concerns, racism, sexism, and globalization. She has written music for Errant Manoeuvres, performed by the Emma Diamond Dance Company at the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York; as well as the music scores for award-winning film Frontierland (produced and directed by Rubén Ortiz and Jessie Lerner) and Por la Libre (produced by Alta Vista films and directed by Juan Carlos de Llaca).
Ortiz’s many accolades include the 2022 Bellas Artes Gold Medal, Mexico’s National Prize for Arts and Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright-García Robles Fellowship, and two Latin GRAMMY nominations. She has previously served as composer-in-residence with Carnegie Hall and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. She is a member of the Academy of the Arts and has been inducted into El Colegio Nacional, Mexico’s most esteemed circle of intellectuals.
Ortiz is currently composer-in-residence at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonia in London, and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. She also teaches composition at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. Her music is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Biography written with contribution from Ana Alonso Minutti