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The Portuguese tenor, André Cruz, started began his piano studies at the age of 5 until he was 9;
but soon switched to vocal music. At the age of 17 he started conducting Staccato Ensemble vocal group and, since 2007, became a member of the Lisboa Cantat Symphonic Choir. At the age of 18 he started to study singing at the
National Conservatory Music School in Lisbon (2007-2012). He obtained his Bachelor of Music degree in Choral Conducting with Rob Vermeulen from the Utrecht Conservatory (2012-2016), where he also studied
Singing with Jón Þorsteinsson; and his Master of Arts degree in Early Music Singing with Rita Dams from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (2016-2018). At the end of 2016, he participated in a collaborative project between the Royal Conservatory and The Juilliard School of Music (USA), resulting in a series of concerts in the USA and the Netherlands under the baton of
Ton Koopman. Academically he has performed also in Interpretation Masterclasses with the conductor Armando Vidal and João Paulo Santos and in Kurt Thomas Course (conducting course) as soloist.
André Cruz is/was also a member of several other choirs, including the Coro Câmara Lisboa Cantat (May 2011-July 2012), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Choir (April 2011-July 2013) and
EuropaChorAkademie (ECA) (November 2013-March 2017); he was also vocal coach in Germany in co-operation with Professor
Joshard Daus in his Brahms Chor. He has
performed, as a choir member or as a soloist, with many other conductors, including Hans Leenders,
Gijs Leenaars, Rob Vermeulen, Michel Corboz,
Philippe Herreweghe, Gustavo Dudamel,
Harry Christophers, Jonathan Not, Per-Otto Johansson, Kaspars Putniņš,
Daniel Reuss, Valery Gergiev, etc.
Recently, André Cruz gave concerts with the vocal ensemble The Sixteen, with
Nederlands Kamerkoor (since June 2019) and
Laurens Collegium Eotterdam. Currently, he conducts the classical mixed choirs Amsterdam Handelvereniging (AMS) (since April 2016), Oratoriumkoor De Lier (De Lier) (since April 2019) and the church choir of the international Church of Our Savior (DH). He also sings and is assistant-conductor at the
Chamber Choir of Europe (CCE) (since August 2017) as well as the World Choir for Peace (WCP) (since March 2020) and
Groot Omroepkoor (NRC) (since August 2021). He currently lives in Voorburg, the Netherlands. |
