Rodrigo Riera (born September 19, 1923, in Carora, Lara; died August 9, 1999, in Barquisimeto, Lara) was a Venezuelan guitarist and composer.
Riera was a self-taught guitarist. He had already performed on the radio when he moved to Caracas in 1945, where he studied with Raúl Borges. In 1952, he went to Spain and became a student of Regino Sáinz de la Maza at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música y Declamación in Madrid. In 1954, he attended Andrés Segovia’s master class at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena.
Riera lived in Spain until 1962, from where he undertook concert tours throughout Europe and his native Venezuela. He performed works by Latin American composers such as Antonio Lauro, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Agustín Barrios Mangoré, Manuel María Ponce, Vicente Emilio Sojo, and Raúl Borges, as well as his own compositions. He also occasionally performed in a duo with his friend Alirio Díaz.
In 1962, he moved to New York, where he worked as a concert guitarist, composer, and guitar teacher. It was here that he composed some of his best-known works, such as Preludio Criollo, Merengue Venezolano, Elorac, Monotonia, Melancolia, and Cancion Caroreña. He also arranged several of Vivaldi’s instrumental concertos for the guitar.
In 1969, he returned to Venezuela and settled in Barquisimeto in 1971. He worked there as a composer and music educator until his death. In 1995, he received the Colombian National Prize for Music. In Caracas, the Fundación Mavesa organizes the Concurso every two years.