Czexican Melodies: A Conversation and Recital With Omar Rojas

Life experience and national origins are two elements that often dramatically impact an artist’s personality and aesthetic tendencies. In the case of Omar Rojas, those elements were formed by the two countries that have factored most heavily in his professional life as a composer and performer—Mexico and the Czech Republic.

A majority of the works to be performed in this programme were written by Rojas in the Czech Republic, but with a strong Mexican cultural influence. The same can be said of the Czech elements heard in the pieces composed in Mexico. This balanced duality is further enriched through the audience and Rojas’ interactive brand of concerts, and is a perfect complement to the “Mexican Big Bang” paintings on exhibit by Roberto Turnbull.

Performer
Edgar Omar Rojas Ruiz began his musical studies at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios de la Música (CIEM) (Center of Studies and Musical Research) under the direction of Alejandro Velasco “Kavindu” and Víctor Rasgado for composition, and with Marcela Rodríguez and Enrico Chapela for orchestration. From 2007–2009 he worked on his Masters in Music Composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in the Czech Republic with Prof. Arnošt Parsch. At this same institution, he completed his Doctorate in Music Composition and Theory with Prof. Ing. Ivo Medek.

His original music has been performed in Mexico, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Czech Republic, America, Slovakia and Spain. In 2011 he was awarded first prize in the VII Concurso de Composición Musical Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain). He also has worked on the production of various international cultural projects, including as Logistics Manager for the Festival of Music and New Technologies, Visiones Sonoras, 2006 (Mexico City), General Manager and Founder of the First Composition Award Janáček–Revueltas 2008 (Czech Republic–Mexico) and Music Manager for the Festival “Mexic(k)o 2010”, a commemoration of the Bicentennial of Mexican Independence and the Centenary of the Mexican Revolution (Czech Republic 2010). Since 2007, he has been the Founder and Director of the Alumni Network of CIEM in Mexico. In 2014 he was invited to be President of the Jury during the final stage of the Song Festival at the prestigious Mexican university Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus Querétaro. During this post he also worked on several interdisciplinary projects, including as musical director for the theatrical performance “Cada quien su Lara” by the renowned Mexican actor Héctor Bonilla (Mexico), and as an arranger of the suite “En el crepusculo de mi vida” by the Mexican actor Javier Díaz Dueñas.