Biography

Gabriela Ortiz Torres was born in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 of parents who were folk musicians. She learned folk music at home, and then studied in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 at the Ecole Normale de Musique. She returned to Mexico City due to the illness of her mother, and studied composition there with Mario Lavista

Mario Lavista

Mario Lavista is a Mexican composer and writer. He has had numerous pieces published, especially chamber music, but also incidental music for plays, film scores, orchestral pieces, and vocal music....

 at the National Conservatory of Music. She continued her studies at the Guildhall School with Robert Saxton

Robert Saxton

-Biography:After early advice and encouragement from Benjamin Britten, Robert Saxton took private composition lessons with Elisabeth Lutyens. He went on to study with Robin Holloway at Cambridge University, with Robert Sherlaw Johnson as a post-graduate at Oxford University, and later with Berio....

, and with Simon Emmerson

Simon Emmerson

For the experimental music artist, see Simon Emmerson .Simon Emmerson is a Grammy Award-nominated record producer, guitarist, DJ and founder of the group Afro Celt Sound System....

 at the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 where she received a PhD in 1996. After completing her studies, she took a position at the National School of Music at the National Autonomous University in Mexico City. She also taught at Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

in the United States.

Honors and awards

• Civitella Ranieri Artistic Residency
• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
• Fulbright Fellowship
• Distincion Universidad Nacional
• First prize of the Silvestre Revueltas National Chamber Music Competition
• First Prize at the Alicia Urreta Composition Competition
• Composers Award Mexican Council for the Arts and Culture
• National Artists System Fellowship from the Mexican Council for the Arts and Culture
• Banff Center for the Arts Residency
• Inroads Commission, a Program of Arts International with funds from the Ford Foundation
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Mozart Medal Award for Mexican Theatre and Music as the best composer of 1997
• The Fundacion Cultural Bancomer Award

Works

• Unicamente La Verdad opera 2010 libretto by Ruben Ortiz
• Magna Sin for steel drum and tape
• Patios for orchestra
• Altar de Piedra for percussion and orchestra
• Zocalo-Bastilla for violin, percussion and orchestra
• Altar de Muertos for string quartet
• Zocalo Tropical for flute, percussion and orchestra
• 100 Watts
• Seis piezas a Violeta for string quartet and piano
• Baalkah for string quartet

Her compositions have been recorded and issued on CD including:

• Visiones Panamericanas by Tania Leon, Eugenio Toussaint, Gabriela Ortiz, Roberto Sierra, and Richard Felciano (Audio CD - 2002)
• Altar de Muertos by Gabriela Ortiz, Arturo Nieto-Dorantes, and Sarah Leonard (Audio CD - 2006)
• Mi Chelada by Alejandro Cardona, Gabriel Ruiz, Astor Piazzolla, Miguel del Aguila, and Enrico Chapela (Audio CD - 2000)
• Ritmicas by Minoru Miki, Santiago Ojeda, Gabriela Ortiz, Amadeo Roldan, and Eugenio Toussaint (Audio CD - 1997)
• Tear by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Gabriela Ortiz, Silvestre Revueltas, Adriana Isabel Figueroa Mañas, and Alberto Ginastera (Audio CD - 2003)
• Musica Sinfonica Mexicana by Silvestre Revueltas, Federico Ibarra, Gabriela Ortiz, Manuel Enriquez, and Jose Pablo Moncayo Garcia (Audio CD - 1997)