Ulises Rodriguez, pianist and composer born in the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Son of an Engineer Father and a Painter Mother, Ulises with just 3 years of age started showing a remarkable precocity in music. Classical trained, Ulises started his studies in the Elila Mena School of Music of Santo Domingo under the guidance of the Professor Ivan Dominguez. 

 

Within just 2 years of study and being 9 years of age, he started playing as a soloist in various important stages over the country, like: The Main Hall of the National Theater of Santo Domingo performing a J. Haydn Concerto being the youngest Dominican performing a Piano Concerto with Orchestra at the Dominican Republic -; The Presidential Palace, in the presence of the President of the Dominican Republic -; The National Theater of Cibao performing for 2 years in “The Nutcracker ballet“ Produced and Directed by Caonex Peguero, Julliard’s Alumni - among others.

 

At his 16 years of age Ulises graduated as Classical Piano Concertist from the National Conservatory of Music of Santo Domingo and that same year also won the first National Piano Concerto Competition of Dominican Republic “Manuel Rueda” celebrated in the Conservatory of Music of Santo Domingo winning the highest prize Gold Medal. Additionally he has received many important awards including; First Prize “Oliva Pichardo de del Campo - Piano Category”, Gold Medal Superior Category in the 1st Piano Sonata Competition of the National Conservatory of Music of Santo Domingo, Meritorious Student in Diná School of Music, Gold

Medal Superior Category in Pianistic Interpretation Workshop, Bronze Medal in the 5th Latin- American Music Competition. His expertise on the piano and his technique has earned him the recognition of important musicians internationally such as Pompa Baldi from Cleveland Institute of Music, Maria Asteriadou from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, Damaris Morales and Victor Hugo Alvarez from College of Southern Nevada. 

 

To continue improving his musical knowledge and after finishing his studies in classical piano, Ulises started his studies in Contemporary music and Jazz leading his way into winning one of the four scholarships granted by Berklee College of Music in the “Michel Camilo Scholarship Competition” where he performed excerpts of one of the most difficult piano pieces ever written, in the opinion of many experts, the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3, and also a Jazz arrangement by Charlie Parker of Scrapple from the Apple.

 

Ulises Graduated Summa Cum Laude Majoring in Film Scoring and Minoring in Video Game Music Scoring at Berklee College of Music in Boston MA, 2016. Since his start at Berklee, Ulises was part of the Dean's list every semester. He was awarded many honors like the "Berklee Piano Achievement Award 2013", the "Latin American Tour Scholarship 2014", the "Achievement Grant Fall 2015", the "Achievement Grant Spring 2016" the "Matsushita Technics Scholarship 2016" and the "Soren Christensen Award 2016" based on his contributions to the college and his outstanding academic progress and musicianship. 

 

Ulises, being exposed to a variety of music genres through his life made him pursue one of his dreams, becoming a successful Film Composer and performer to connect all music ramifications into one big tree of music, capable of creating emotions to help understand the picture of life.