Rodolfo Morales

Rodolfo Morales is a committed music educator, coach, and performer, presently serving as the Instrumental Music Department Chair at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX, where he is also the Director of Classical Piano.  

Mr. Morales attended The Juilliard School where he received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Piano Performance, under the guidance of world-renowned Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky. An advocate of modern music, he was the interim Artistic Director for the Foundation for Modern Music for the 2004-05 concert season. He has performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, the Woodlands Symphony and the World Youth Symphony Orchestra in Michigan; his appearances as concert soloist include performances at the Juilliard Theater and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Wortham Center, Zilkha Hall, Jones Hall and Stude Concert Hall in Houston, the Hall of the Army in Sarajevo Bosnia, the San Fernando Cathedral and the Scottish Rite Cathedral in San Antonio TX, the Latin Center for the Arts in Dallas, the Menil Collection and the Rienzi Collection in Houston, among others. He has been heard as a soloist on NPR’s “Performance Today” performing the music of Spanish composer Enrique Granados. In 2010, Mr. Morales was awarded the annual Pre-Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award by the Texas Music Teachers Association. Other awards include the first ever Distinguished Alumni Award from the American Festival for the Arts, a Robert McNair Foundation grant for performance studies, the Isabel Scionti Award at the Isabel Scionti International Piano Competition, and was a two-time winner of the National Concerto Competition at the Interlochen Summer Music Festival.  

Mr. Morales believes that arts education is a basic human right, and is involved with many private and public organizations that are committed to high quality music and arts programming in education, serving as Board Member for the AFA, the Houston Symphony’s Education Committee, the Houston Music Teachers Association (President 2012-2014), among others. He was Chair of Piano for the AFA Summer Festival from 2004-2022, and faculty of the Point-Counterpoint Chamber Music camp at Lake Dunmore, Vermont from 2018-2022. This summer of 2023 he is spearheading the first ever Houston ISD Piano Summer Intensive with a team of fellow piano colleagues from other Houston ISD magnet programs, an effort designed to increase access to high- quality piano training to under-served student communities.  

Mr. Morales is a proud alum of the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX and the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where he received his high school diploma on a full scholarship, graduating with Academic and Music Honors. Mr. Morales is a native of Piedras Negras, Mexico. He maintains a private teaching studio in the Montrose area of Houston, where he lives with his beloved wife Donell, their son Cody, and their (four) dogs.