Rodolfo Badel (b. 1987) grew up in the northern coastal region of Colombia, where his musical sensibility was greatly influenced by his family’s musical practice, as well as by the region’s traditional music. His music reflects his own personal creative dichotomy of exploring the creative freedom awarded by most of the popular musical traditions with which he grew up while also having learned to write music in a more rational and academically strict manner during his university studies.

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His works have received different awards. In 2021, Tamburo, for five percussionists, was premiered by the Wankara Percussion Ensemble for Banco de la República’s digital concert season. Trashumancia, for soprano and chamber ensemble, was premiered in the Teresa Cuervo Borda Auditorium of Bogotá’s National Museum in 2019. Abozao, for cello and piano, was presented at the Lille Opera (France) by Colombian cellist José David Sierra and French pianist Alphonse Cemin. Eco, for piano, was selected in the call-for-scores organized by Círculo Colombiano de Música Contemporánea (CCMC) in 2018, and was premiered in Bogotá by Ignacio Torner, pianist for the Spanish ensemble Taller Sonoro. His second string quartet, Remembranzas, was selected to be performed during the 2016 edition of the String Quartet International Festival organized by Cuarteto Q-Arte in Bogotá (2016). Phasis, for Pierrot ensemble, received the first honorable mention in Colombia’s Ministry of Culture’s National Composition Competition in 2010.

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While growing up, Rodolfo studied violin and classical guitar but, in the end, decided to specialize in music composition. He studied music theory and composition at Bogotá’s Pontificia Universidad Javeriana with Carolina Noguera, Juan Gabriel Osuna, Juan Antonio Cuéllar, Diego Vega, Guillermo Gaviria and Carlos Julio Ramírez. He received his master's degree in composition, with honors, from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana under the guidance of composer Carolina Noguera.

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Published October 5, 2022