Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz

JOVIANNEY EMMANUEL CRUZ is an internationally acclaimed and multi-awarded Filipino Concert Pianist, Educator, and Artistic Director. He was a prizewinner in the Jose Iturbi (Valencia), the Pilar Bayona (Zaragoza), the Concurs Internacional Maria Canals (Barcelona), and the Jaen International Piano Competitions in Spain, the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition in New York, the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Monza, and the Concorso Internazionale per Pianoforte e Orchestra in Sicily. He has also won First Prize in the Bergen Philharmonic Solo Competition, the Haddonfield Symphony Solo Competition, the Queens Symphony Soloists Competition, the New York State Music Teachers Association, and the Five Towns, Great Neck, and Port Washington Piano Competitions in Long Island. He has performed as soloist with the Manhattan Philharmonia, the Queens Symphony, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Maracaibo Symphony, the Orquesta Municipal de Valencia, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the State of Oradea, the Uni-Orchester Säarbrucken, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, the Orquesta Filharmonica de Gran Canaria, the National Symphony Orchestra of Malaysia, the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, numerously with the Philippine Philharmonic and the Manila Symphony orchestras, and most recently with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Cuba.

A former child prodigy, Mr. Cruz began his piano studies at the age of three with his mother, Lourdes L. Villanueva-Cruz. At age 5, he was invited to give a command performance at the Malacañang Palace and at age 10, he made his orchestral debut with the Philippine Youth Orchestra after winning First Prize in the National Music Competitions for Young Artists. In 1977, Sir Lennox Berkeley granted him a full scholarship to the Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, England. In 1980, he transferred to New York to pursue scholarships at the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a pupil of the legendary Artist-Teacher Solomon Mikowsky. A distinguished alumnus of MSM, Mr. Cruz was a winner of both the Preparatory and College Divisions Concerto Competitions and a recipient of the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, the Elva Van Gelder, and the Anne-Marie McDermott Memorial Scholarships. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees in Piano Performance, and was awarded the coveted Harold Bauer Award.

As a mentor, Mr. Cruz has produced prize-winning students and is often invited to give master classes in prestigious music institutions & festivals worldwide, most recently in Fondation Bell’Arte’s Paris International Summer Sessions at the Conservatoire Maurice Ravel in Levallois-Perret, France. As an artistic director and concert producer, he is one of the pioneers for the renaissance of Classical Music awareness in the Philippines. He was a Co-Founder & Artistic Director of Ang Misyon – a social program that provides free music education to the less privileged Filipino youth. He is also the Founder & Artistic Director of The Manila International Piano Masterclasses Festival, OPUSFEST: The International Classical Music Camp, and The Ultimate Pianist Competition: The Lourdes L. Villanueva-Cruz Memorial Award, in honor of his late mother. Mr. Cruz has been invited as a Juror in the 1^st ASEAN International Chopin Piano Competition, the Hong Kong Open Music Competition, the EUROASIA Youth Music Festival, the Steinway Youth Piano Competition, and frequently as an Adjudicator in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival.

In 2010, Mr. Cruz was chosen as one of twelve international Artists to inaugurate the Solomon Gadles Mikowsky Recital Hall in New York, and was also invited to inaugurate the piano recital series at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia. In celebration of Franz Liszt’s bicentenary, the Italian piano-makers Fazioli invited him to perform at Taiwan’s National Concert Hall. In 1996, President Fidel V. Ramos conferred on Mr. Cruz The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Award for his contribution to the Arts in the Philippines