Artistic Profile

Mr. Cruz is a Chilean-born musical composer/multi-instrumentalist and writer who has performed, taught and recorded music since the age of fourteen.  In addition, he has created, participated and consulted in multimedia productions involving theater, dance and visual arts and film.  He is the leader of the latino fusion jazz trio Quijerema.  (For additional information on Mr.  Cruz visit the site: www.quijerema.com)

He received the prestigious Oshita Composer Fellowship from the Djerassi Foundation (2002).  He is presently a National Endowment for the Arts fellow, composing a 45 minute suite to be used as the soundtrack for a documentary film, “After the Fire, Water.” directed by Oscar Nominee Marylyn Mulford.

 He composed the score called “Tinta Verde”, for the documentary film Pablo Neruda, Presente! (Quijerema 2004)   He just finished working with noted film Emmy Winer composer Mark Adler on the documentary film The Fall of Fujimori (2005 Sundance).  He is the composer for the new feature film “Pisagua”  by noted Chilean filmmaker Cristian Galaz.

He has also been hired as a musical consultant for theater and also has recorded music for TV—America's Cup (CBS) under the musical direction of Mickey Hart and films—Vibes (Columbia Pictures) under the musical direction of James Horner.  He worked  with Mark Adler on the Documentary film Chicano Park, directed by Oscar Nominee Marylyn Mulford.

He acted as the producer of the Grupo Raíz albums: Un Solo Camino (Raíz,1980), Amaneceres (Monitor,1982) and Por America del Centro (Monitor, 1983). As well, he was the co-producer of the LP Grupo  Raíz  Anthology under the Alerce label in Chile (1985).

Besides performing Latin American folk music, Cruz has joined on stage: Jackson Browne,  Mimi Fariña,  Pete Seeger , Jorge  Strunz, and Sting, among others.

This stage collaboration has resulted in his participation on LPs with Jackson Browne on Lives in the Balance (Electra Asylum, 1985); Strunz & Farah on Guitarras (Fantasy, 1985); William Ackerman on Conferring with the Moon (Windham Hill Records, 1986); Pete Sears on Watchfire (Redwood, 1988); Kenny Loggins on Leap of Faith. (Columbia Records, 1992); and Alex de Grassi on The World's Getting Loud (Windham Hill Records, 1993). His latest recordings are 9 original compositions on Tatamonk (Tropo Records, 2000) with Alex de Grassi and 7 original compositions on Amistades (Wariznake, 2000) with Rafael Manriquez.  His latest recording, Tinta Verde,  is the score for a documentary on Pablo Neruda, (Quijerema 2004).

Cruz has combined his musical career with academic pursuits.  As a history major at the University of California at Berkeley, he was awarded the President's Undergraduate Fellowship.  He was selected for Phi Beta Kappa and he graduated summa cum laude.  He earned a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University and is presently a Ph.D. candidate in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford.  He was a Social Science Research Council Fellow in 1999, working on issues of memory, violence and exile. In 2001, he had a fellowship from the Ford Foundation to do research, interviews and write on issues of aesthetics and political violence.