Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz parlayed a lifetime in music into a breakout night at the 68th Grammy Awards — winning one statuette in her own name and sharing two more for a project that has pushed her onto classical music’s global front line.
Ortiz, 61, won the Grammy for best contemporary classical composition for “Dzonot,” a cello concerto inspired by the cenotes of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and written for cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
She was part of a strong Mexican showing at the Sunday ceremonies in Los Angeles. Singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade won best Latin pop album for “Cancionera,” and Carín León won best música mexicana album for “Palabra De To’s (Seca).”
Ortiz’s “Dzonot” premiered in Los Angeles in 2024 and anchors the album “Gabriela Ortiz: Yanga” which also earned Grammys for best classical compendium and best choral performance. A joyous Ortiz was named as the composer on those two nominations, but the primary winners of those awards were the performers and producers.
“We won three Grammys with Yanga!!!!!!!” Ortiz wrote on Instagram, calling the project “very close to my heart” and adding, “It comes from my roots, from memory, and from a deep belief that music can carry history, dignity, and hope.”
Born in Mexico City to musicians who were founding members of the folk group Los Folkloristas, Ortiz grew up playing charango (a small Andean lute‑like stringed instrument) and guitar.
As a young adult, she pursued classical piano and composition studies with two prominent Mexican composers: Mario Lavista at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and Federico Ibarra at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
She later studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and earned a doctorate from City University of London, building a profile that fuses concert tradition, electronics and multimedia.
She has been a composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall, and currently is composer-in-residence at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.
Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the L.A. Philharmonic and one of the world’s best‑known maestros, has called Ortiz “one of the most talented composers in the world.”
Ortiz, who is also a professor of composition at UNAM in Mexico City, has now been recognized for six Grammys.
In 2025, she won the best contemporary classical composition Grammy and shared in two others for “Revolución diamantina,” a large-scale ballet score and the name of a 2024 album with the L.A. Philharmonic and Dudamel — the first full album of her orchestral music.
With reports from El Universal, Excélsior and The Strad
