Rodrigo Camargo is a Brazilian composer writing chamber music, orchestral works, vocal music, and opera. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Composition at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) and is the recipient of the National Opera Association’s Dominick Argento Fellowship for Opera Composition. He holds a Master of Music degree from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor’s degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
Rodrigo began his formal composition studies in 2015 at UFRJ, where he studied with Marcos Nogueira and Liduino Pitombeira, and took additional coursework with Roberto Macedo, Alexandre Schubert, and Carlos Almada. During his undergraduate years, he composed and premiered several significant works, including O Quarteto for string quartet, premiered by Quarteto Kalimera, and Prelúdio ao Desconhecido for wind orchestra, which won the Minerva Competition and was premiered by the UFRJ Wind Orchestra under the direction of Marcelo Jardim. In 2019, he attended the Atlantic Music Festival in the United States, where his Sextet for Pierrot Ensemble and Percussion was premiered.
Following the completion of his bachelor’s degree in 2020, Rodrigo’s music began to receive increasing national and international recognition. That same year, his piece Hard-bopped Overdrive received both the Jury Prize and the Performers’ Prize at the SCAR Composition Competition. In 2021, he made his debut at the Biennial of Contemporary Brazilian Music at Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro, where violinists Tomaz Soares and Luisa de Castro performed his Three Pieces for Two Violins. In April 2022, his Sextet was performed at Carnegie Hall in New York by members of the Constantinides New Music Ensemble.
Rodrigo’s most recent notable works include the operas Emily Somebody (Second Place, American Prize for Opera Composition), A Song For All (commissioned by No Divide KC and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City), and Lira dos Enganos (commissioned by FELINI – Festival Lírico de Niterói, premiered on August 2025). His orchestral work Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was commissioned by the KC Sinfonietta, and his Pocket Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was premiered at the 25th Biennial of Contemporary Brazilian Music by Tomaz Soares and the Orquestra Sinfônica de Barra Mansa, conducted by Anderson Alves. His second string quartet, There Where I’m Not, was commissioned by UMKC’s Graduate Fellowship String Quartet and premiered during his residency with the ensemble in the 2024–25 season.
In addition to concert music, Rodrigo has also released commercial recordings, including 5 Poemas de Fernando Pessoa, a song cycle for soprano and piano, and Two Duos, featuring works for violin and piano, and cello and piano. Most of his music is available online and on major streaming platforms.
Alongside his compositional activities, Rodrigo is actively engaged in music education and outreach. He’s a Composition Teaching Artist with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, teaching the curriculum Music! Words! Opera! For high-school students at the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts. In September 2025, he joined 91.9 Classical KC as a Graduate Assistant for Broadcast Curation and Coordination, cataloguing and broadcasting recordings from UMKC students, faculty and ensembles.
Rodrigo Camargo, composer 