BIO
Gabriela Ortiz is a composer and a Professor of Composition at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has written works for chamber ensemble, orchestra, opera, dance and film, collaborating with poets, playwrights and historians. Her creative process explores the connections between gender issues, social justice, environmental concerns and racism, as well as the multiculturalism brought about by globalization, technological development and mass migrations. This engagement is patent in her three operas: Only the Truth, about the drug war; Ana and Her Shadow, about illegal migration between Mexico and the United States; and Firefly, about the violation of university autonomy in the student movement of 1968. Her distinctions include Mexico’s National Prize for Arts and Literature and the Gold Medal of the Mexican Institute of Fine Arts. She is also a member of the Mexican Academy of Arts and, since 2022, of the Colegio Nacional, which brings together the country’s foremost scientists, artists, writers and philosophers. In 2025 she was recognized with three Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Best Classical Compendium and Best Orchestral Performance for her work Revolución diamantina, becoming the first Mexican woman to obtain this triple recognition.
