A versatile musician whose musical passions span everything from Gregorian chant to contemporary musical theatre, Robert Cruz currently works as a freelance musician based in Shreveport, Louisiana.  

A church musician since the age of 15, Robert is currently the organist at Noel Memorial United Methodist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. At Noel he regularly arranges and composes for vocal and instrumental ensembles and assists with the planning of the Masterworks concert series. Previous church positions include the Cathedral of St. John Berchmans (Shreveport, LA) where he developed and oversaw a program encompassing an adult choir, a treble choir, two scholae specializing in Gregorian chant, and multiple grade-school and high-school ensembles. He has previously served parishes in Indiana, Illinois, and Massachusetts. In addition to his work in church settings, Robert has also regularly appeared as an organist in concert settings, not only as a soloist but often as a collaborator including a performance with the Canadian Brass in spring 2022.

Robert began working in theatre as a music director for Cardinal Stage Company (now Constellation Stage and Screen) in Bloomington, Indiana where he worked on productions of Les Miserables, 1776, and Shrek the Musical as well as overseeing arrangements and performance tracks for The Birthday Feast, a 45-minute TYA show commissioned by the company. In Shreveport he has served as music director at the Emmett Hook Center for productions of Nunsense, Into the Woods, Forever Plaid, Elf the Musical, and Godspell. At Shreveport Little Theatre he has music directed Seva May: On My Own, Always…Patsy Cline, and My Way. For Stage Center in Shreveport, LA he has music directed productions of SpongeBob Squarepants and Jersey Boys. He has also branched out into directing, serving as assistant director for The Sound of Music and as director for Jesus Christ Superstar and Barefoot in the Park, all at the Emmett Hook Center.

As a pianist Robert regularly accompanies singers and instrumentalists in a wide range of styles and genres. In 2020-2021 he collaborated with cellist Brett Andrews in presenting Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano. In the spring of 2023 He was selected to accompany guest artist soprano Lori Lusted in a recital on the Texas Street Arts Series of First United Methodist Church in Shreveport. He is also in demand as an orchestral pianist/keyboardist and regularly performs with the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra, the Marshall Symphony Orchestra, and the South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

In the Spring of 2020, Robert co-founded the Carrefour Collaborative Music Project with cellist Brett Andrews. This organization is dedicated to building community through collaborative music-making and has progressed from a couple of musicians putting together online concerts during the Covid-19 pandemic to a flourishing non-profit organization that produces three to four in-person concerts per season.

Robert completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Organ Performance and Music History at Wheaton College in Illinois, where he was a student of Edward Zimmerman, and his Master’s Degree in Organ Performance and Sacred Music at Indiana University, where he studied with Christopher Young and Bruce Neswick.  He studied collaborative piano at Boston University as a student of Sheila Kibbe and Robert Merfield. He has also studied various aspects of theatre music directing at the Goodspeed Music Directing Intensive and in masterclasses with James Sampliner and Brian Usifer.