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Roco Córdova

Pre-College
  • Bridge to Arts and Music
Roco Córdova photo

Contact

Departments

Education

MMA Composition, Mills College

BM Composition, Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music

Ensembles

Batey Tambó (2024-Present)

Art Ensemble of Chicago (2018-2020)

Q&A

What is your hometown?

San Juan, Puerto Rico

What are you passionate about outside of music?

Hiking, Reading, History, Anthropology

Who were your major teachers?

Dr. Carlos Carrillo Cotto, Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins

What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?

"Do or Do not, there is no try" - Master Yoda

Biography

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Roco Córdova is a vocalist, composer, producer, improviser and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They possess a B.Mus. in Composition from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and a M.M.A. in Composition from Mills College in Oakland, California.


Cordova's music fuses diverse influences with electronic media, chance operations, gradual processes, noise, improvisation, and timbral techniques of composition. Voice is at the core of their practice: they weave together extended techniques like throat singing, overtone singing, falsetto, and vocal percussion into dynamic live performances. 


As an educator, Roco has a decade of experience working in diverse settings. They have been a freelance guitar, voice and composition teacher, and have worked as Musicianship Instructor at Mills College. As a visiting artist, they have imparted vocal improvisation workshops at the California College of the Arts and The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Since 2022, they have taught as a Music Instructor in the Bridge to Arts and Music Program, becoming the Program Manager for BAM-SFCM in January 2024. Córdova believes in a holistic approach to music education; incorporating dance, movement, classical, jazz and popular music with methodologies that emphasize play and exploration.