Christian Cruz, 30, is a musician, composer, and second-generation American who lives in Los Angeles.
When not teaching guitar lessons or playing gigs, Cruz, who holds two master’s degrees in the field (USC and Fresno State), finds his talents best satisfied with project-based music composition. He also looks forward to teaching this fall with Lead Guitar in Los Angeles, a non-profit that takes music education into schools with low access to the arts. He took some time to tell part of his story to Borderzine from the home base of his “Caucasian family” in Denair, a small town in California’s Central Valley.
Cruz was visiting, along with his spouse and fellow musician, Erin Young, who he met in USC’s music program. Young is lead guitar instructor at LA-based Tonebase, a subscription-based music education program where Cruz also works as a guitar content assistant. Her gigs playing baroque guitar also helped her connect with the MusiKaravan duo, whose work you can access through The Soraya Center for the Performing Arts at Cal State Northridge.
