He studied composition with John Beckwith at the University of Toronto and Jo Kondo in Japan.
Although Rolfe's chamber, vocal, orchestral, and piano works are widely performed, he has become most noted for his operas.
Beatrice Chancy, an opera set in Nova Scotia during the 19th century (libretto by George Elliott Clarke), was produced in 1998 by Toronto's Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company and was subsequently filmed for television by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2000.
The last two works were both commissioned and produced by Toronto Masque Theatre as companion pieces to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Descent of Orpheus to the Underworld and Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.
In February 2009 Rolfe's opera Inês (with libretto by Paul Bentley) was produced and performed in Toronto by the Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company.