Rodolfo Ortega

Behind the Music

Rodolfo Ortega is an award winning composer for theatre, film and television. Rodolfo received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of Arizona and his Master’s of Music Degree from Manhattan School of Music where he studied piano and composition.

Rodolfo is nationally known for his work in the theatre.  He has composed music and sound designed for some of the most prestigious theatre companies in the United States including The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Romeo & Juliet, The Tenth Muse) and Denver Center for the Performing Arts (The Three Musketeers, Romeo & Juliet).  Rodolfo is also an Associate Artist with Santa Cruz Shakespeare (Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Man in the Iron Mask, Henry IV, (Parts I & II) and Venus in Fur).  His composition for Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost drew high praise from the Wall Street Journal which called his music “unexpectedly haunting”.  At Santa Cruz Shakespeare he also collaborated with Tony Award winning director, Pam McKinnon, on Othello.  In the Bay area Rodolfo has worked with Aurora Theatre Company, composing music for The Monster Builder, which won the San Francisco Drama Critics Award. His compositions were heard by LA audiences when South Coast Repertory Theater also staged The Monster Builder.  Rodolfo has also composed the music for Cleveland Playhouse's Native Gardens.

Rodolfo lives in Portland, Oregon where his theatrical work has been prolific. Since 2008, he has composed an original musical every year for Northwest Children’s Theatre including Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and El Zorrito (which was published by Dramatic Publishing in 2014). For Artists Repertory Theatre he has designed and composed the music for Caught, The Liar, Feathers and Teeth, The Talented Ones, Trevor, Intimate Apparel and many more. With Jane Unger and Profile Theatre, Rodolfo designed and composed for 13 seasons, each focused on a particular playwright. A handful of his Profile credits include the sound design and music for The Blue Door (Portland Drammy Award), A Lesson Before Dying, Lips Together Teeth Apart and Master Harold and the Boys. He has composed for Teatro Milagro including their productions of Lorca in a Green Dress (Portland Drammy Award), Ardiente Paciencia and Elliot a Soldier’s Fugue. He was commissioned to compose the music for Oye’ Oya’ a bilingual musical adaptation of The Tempest for Teatro Milagro. Rodolfo composed the scores for Oregon Children’s Theatre’s productions of Charlotte’s Web, Tuck Everlasting (Portland Drammy Award), BFG, Holes and Cyrano.  Additionally he composed the music for the published play The Illustrated Bradbury by Ray Bradbury in collaboration with Tobias Andersen.  For the 2000-2001 Portland theatre season, Rodolfo was awarded a Portland Drammy Award in Sound Design and Composition for an entire season of outstanding work.  

Rodolfo's work was selected for inclusion in the 2019 Prague Quadrennial.  He is a featured artist for his composition for Artists Repertory Theater’s Magellanica.