André Cruz (1988), born in Lisbon, started playing the piano at a young age, but soon switched to vocal music. At the age of seventeen he started conducting and at the age of eighteen he started to study singing at the conservatory in Lisbon. André graduated from his bachelor’s degree in choral conducting in 2016 at the Utrecht Conservatory with Rob Vermeulen and from his master of early music singing with Rita Dams at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
At the end of 2016, André participated in a collaborative project between the Royal Conservatory and The Juilliard School of Music (USA), resulting in a series of concerts in the United States and the Netherlands under the baton of Ton Koopman.
He is/was also a member of several other choirs, including the Lisboa Cantat
chamber choir and the choir of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and he performed, as a choir member or as a soloist, with many other conductors, including Nicol Matt, Hans Leenders, Gijs Leenaars, Rob Vermeulen, Michel Corboz, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustavo Dudamel, Harry Christophers, Jonathan Not, Per-Otto Johansson, Kaspars Putniņš, Daniel Reuss, etc. André has also performed with the renouned vocal ensemble ‘The Sixteen’, with Bachkoor Holland, Studium Chorale Maastricht, Laurens Collegium Rotterdam, Chamber Choir of Europe and recently became a (board) member of the World Choir for Peace. André conducts the classical mixed choir ‘Amsterdam Handelvereniging’ (AMS), the church
choir of the ‘Church of Our Savior’ (DH) and the Oratoriumkoor De Lier.