Judith Ortega Rodríguez

Biography

Judith Ortega holds a degree in Musicology from the University of Oviedo, Spain, and a degree in piano from the Bilbao Conservatory of Music. In 2010, she obtained a PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid with the thesis  La música en la corte de Carlos III y Carlos IV (1759-1808): de la Real Capilla a la Real Cámara, which was awarded the Extraordinary Doctorate Prize (Premio extraordinario de doctorado). Judith developed an extensive career as a researcher, focusing on Spanish music of the 18th and early 19th centuries in the context of the court and the nobility, and also has an interest in stage music from the same period.

Full Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, she has been teaching in the Department of Musicology since 2015. Since 202, she has been Academic Coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Música Española e Hispanoamericanda at the UCM. Between 1998 and 2019, she was a researcher at the Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales (ICCMU). Among her tasks at this centre, she has been responsible for the scientific coordination of more than 60 critical editions and monographic publications. She has been a contributor and editor of collective reference works, such as the Diccionario de la música española e hispanoamericana (10 vols.) and the Diccionario de la Zarzuela (2 vols.). She is co-director of Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana, published by ICCMU and Ediciones Complutenses, indexed in Scopus and certified by FECYT, distinguishing itself as one of the highest quality in journals in the field.

In addition to her work as a lecturer and researcher (directing and participating in research projects, attending scientific conferences and publishing academic papers), her career has been marked by important dissemination and transfer activities, particularly in the field of programming, promoting and disseminating historical musical heritage and the role of women in music. These activities include writing notes to programs, concerts and recording albums, as well as radio interviews and promotional videos, lecturing and participating in professional forums.

Judith has carried out numerous projects to recover historical repertoire and disseminate it in concerts and recordings, collaborating with groups of specialised performers. Over the last two years, she has co-directed the DeEPMusic (Digitalisation of the Musical Heritage Ecosystem) project developed by the ICCMU, which has seen the launch of the digital editions and the recording of numerous heritage recovery works in venues such as the Teatro Real, the Teatro Principal de Córdoba and the Auditorio Nacional.

She was music advisor for National Heritage for the 2021 season, and was responsible for programming and designing concert programmes for various cycles in 10 different venues. This programme included ten repertoire recovery projects, five of which were recorded in concert-documentary format. Two conferences were also held on the theme of women in the music of the Reales Sitios and another on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of Félix Máximo López.

In 2022, she was a member of the jury for the National Music Awards (Premios Nacionales de Música) presented by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport, and since 2023 she has been a professional judge for the Premios MIN.

She received the award for best research from the Asociación Española de Grupos de Música Antigua in its 2022 edition, as well as an honourable mention in the V Premios de Transferencia de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2019).

In 2025, she curated the exhibition “Ecos del Barroco. La banda sonora del Madrid de Goyeneche”, commissioned by the Comunidad de Madrid for the Nuevo Baztán (Palacio de Goyeneche), and programmed two concerts on the theme of the exhibition.