Assistant Professor,
Northern Arizona University
ICI Cello Faculty
An advocate for multifaceted musical diversity in the 21st century, Cuban-American cellist Karlos Rodriguez is a founding member of the GRAMMY Award–winning Catalyst Quartet. An accomplished soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, clinician, recording artist, writer, and administrator, Rodriguez has built a dynamic and wide-ranging career.
He made his orchestral debut at age 13 with the New World Symphony to critical acclaim. A laureate of numerous competitions and awards—including Florida’s State Cello Prize, the Sphinx Competition, the Irene Muir Performance Prize, and the Bergamo Classic Music Award (Switzerland)—Rodriguez has performed at many of the United States’ premier venues, including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the New World Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and Radio City Music Hall.
As a soloist, he has appeared with the Filarmónica de Bogotá, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Sphinx Virtuosi, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Rodriguez has collaborated with distinguished artists including members of the Beaux Arts Trio and the American, Cavani, Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, Juilliard, Miami, Orion, Tokyo, Takács, and Vermeer String Quartets, as well as renowned musicians such as János Starker, Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Pieter Wispelwey, Cécile McLorin Salvant, J’Nai Bridges, Julia Bullock, Rachel Barton Pine, Awadagin Pratt, Joshua Bell, Anthony McGill, Paul Neubauer, and Steven Isserlis. His principal teachers include Richard Aaron, Peter Wiley, and David Soyer.
A committed advocate for new music, Rodriguez has commissioned and premiered works by many of today’s leading composers, supported by numerous grants. His artistic interests also extend to dance, leading to collaborations with the Thomas/Ortiz Dance Company, Freefall, Mark Morris Dance Group, the Vail International Dance Festival, Herman Cornejo, and Chita Rivera.
Rodriguez has appeared as a guest artist and artist-in-residence at institutions and festivals including the Encore Music Institute, Chamber Music Northwest, Music in the Vineyards, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Sarasota, Sitka, Aspen, Ascent, Grand Canyon, Great Lakes, Kneisel Hall, and Lake Champlain music festivals, as well as Napa Valley’s Festival del Sole.
As an educator, he has served as Director of Artistic Affairs for the Sphinx Performance Academy and has held teaching and residency positions at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School. He regularly presents masterclasses across the United States and internationally. Rodriguez’s work extends beyond the classical stage to film, commercial recordings, and Broadway, and he has collaborated with artists such as Shakira, John Legend, and Pink Martini. He is a member of the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra.
Currently, Rodriguez serves as Assistant Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He is a board member of the Aronson Cello Festival and a former principal cellist of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra in Miami. He is also the editor of Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Music, published by Intellect Books (UK).
Rodriguez performs on the “ex-Gérard Hekking” Gustave Bernardel cello (Paris, 1897), inscribed “Premier Prix Décerné Par Le Conservatoire National de Musique,” and a “Col de Cygne” Dominique Peccatte bow (c. 1840). He is a Pirastro Artist and endorses their Perpetual line of strings.