Rocio is a versatile clarinettist specialised in contemporary and experimental music.
Having emigrated to the U.K. in 2009, Rocio successfully completed her Postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music with Distinction, and has since gone on to complete a Junior Fellowship and International Artist Diploma supported by Buffet before finally undertaking a specialised Masters programme in contemporary music performance at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern.
Rocio has previously worked with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé Orchestra. in the UK and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra in Spain.
Rocio is a founding member of Distractfold Ensemble. Distractfold, is a group of performers, composers and curators all acting out of shared love, passion and interest in the music and culture of our times. Coming from different continents, backgrounds and having received a diverse education, together they create a nexus of ideas and influences which all contribute towards the ensemble’s unique voice and identity. They perform acoustic, mixed and electroacoustic music and in 2014, Distractfold became the first ever U.K. ensemble to be awarded the Kranichstein Prize for Interpretation at the 47th International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt. In 2017 they curated and produced the Cut and Splice Festival, which took place in Manchester for the first time since the festival's inception. Distractfold has participated in reading sessions and workshops nationally and abroad including ensemble residencies at Brunel University (2014-2017), Harvard University (2016 & 2018), Manchester University (Annually since 2018), Stanford University (2017) and Columbia University (2021). In December 2019 Rocio participated in a week-long Artistic Residency at Royaumont Abbey, France. Looking further ahead the ensemble will be in residence for Future Music 4 at the RNCM in collaboration with PRiSM and the BBC Philharmonic RNCM (2022) and returning to Stanford University early 2023.
Rocío is very grateful to have been awarded the Help Musicians “Do It Differently' award, enabling her to self-produce a project which was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and was able to acquire several new skills which have significantly expanded her career as a solo musician and aided her ability to be more self-sufficient as a performing artist. Since then, Rocio’s work has put an increasing emphasis on improvisation where she has become well integrated into the London free improv scene. She has an on-going collaboration with Panos Ghikas that started in 2020 with the creation a real-time composition for bass clarinet and fixed audio. The work utilises techniques of real-time audio collage in the form of a video-score for directed improvisation and explores video notation and instructional strategies for performers with live or fixed audio-visual counterpart. This collaboration is developing the idea further, creating a new album involving a number of exploratory sessions whereby free improvisation employed as a method to search for new sounds and generate musical material combining graphic, instructional and traditional notation.
Performing regularly both nationally and internationally, recent concerts have included: Columbia University Residency, The New Unusual online album launch, Bludenzer Tage Zeitgemäßer Musik, Another Sky Festival, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Stanford University Residency, the Red Angle album launch, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
Rocio has been a guest player with Riot Ensemble (UK), Explore Ensemble (UK), Ensemble Mimitabu (SE), and Switch Ensemble (USA).
She is now pursuing her Counselling Diploma studies alongside her music career.