Born and raised in the Caribbean, Rodney graduated in Spring 2023 with a BA magna cum laude in History of the Americas, Foreign Languages (French and German), and Music (with some credits in Latin American Art History) from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus (UPRRP), where he was awarded the Luis Muñoz Marin Prize in History of the Americas.
As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow (MMUF), he worked on interdisciplinary undergraduate papers in the fields of Music, History, and Art History, such as his recently published article "Forms of Resistance and Exclusion in Puerto Rican Avant-Garde Music in the 20th century: The Case of Francis Schwartz" in the Musicology Journal of the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico (CMPR), Revista Musiké Vol. 9 No. 1 (2024). Rodney's work investigates the Life & Work of composer Francis Schwartz (b. 1940) and how neocolonialism and elitism connect to the emergence of avant-garde music in Puerto Rico as music of resistance through musical exclusion during the late 1960s. Another research publication, “Representations of Political and Institutional Violence in the Visual Arts from the 20th to the 21st Century in Puerto Rico,” can be found in the undergraduate journal of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus, Revista [in]genios No. 1 Vol. 10 (2023). This work uncovered new academic sources and relevant research fields by studying visual arts and how colonialism has violently marked Puerto Ricans at the turn of the century, intertwined with resistance and the voice of those marginalized throughout history. His publications and research papers are the foundation for his research questions and curiosities in Puerto Rican avant-garde and contemporary music.
As a graduate student here at UC Berkeley, he continues to research deep into late 20th and 21st century Puerto Rican music and visual arts. His main research project is about the pluralism of avant-garde composers and the evolutive eclecticism developed into contemporary music in Puerto Rico during the decades of the 1970s and 1980s. Focusing on the music and life of these composers, he explores their style from a global and internal perspective, such as the dialogue of other arts within music (theatre, visual arts & literature) and topics such as politics, historiographic questions of ecology, sound-image, resistance, representation, violence, colonialism, and transnationality from these art forms.
Aside from his academic interests, his passion for choral composition has led him to participate as a Tenor in choral ensembles since 2016, such as the UPRRP Choir; Philharmonic Choir of San Juan; Ars Vocalis PR; Orfeón San Juan Bautista and our UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus. In addition, a few choral works by different choral ensembles have already premiered in Puerto Rico. His love for music and the humanities motivates him to compose contemporary sacred choral and secular music to this day.
