Friday, March 28, 2025
Longy’s annual gala, Music Para Todos, is coming up on April 14! All donations support scholarships for Longy students. If you are unable to attend, consider making a gift.
We are excited to be featuring the legendary Chucho Valdés and alum Juan Ruiz UD ‘11, MM ‘13. Ahead of that exciting evening, we chatted with Juan about his career, his mentors, and what it’s like being a musician today.
THE ROAD TO LONGY
Ruiz came to the United States from Colombia in 2006 and started at Longy in 2007. He said that two of his favorite aspects of his Longy experience were the flexibility he was given in his studies and the endless opportunities to perform, even after changing his focus from clarinet performance to composition. He said,
“They allowed me to move to composition, but they said, ‘You have to be in the orchestra and you have to do chamber music.’ And I was like, ‘Is that supposed to be a punishment?’ I was delighted. I was always performing, composing, playing in the orchestra. What more could I ask for—it was a great place for me to be doing my undergrad because I was playing. I love to play.”
Ruiz was also an avid consumer of any live music he could find in Boston and developed creative ways to access it on a student budget.
“I used to stand up at Symphony Hall and wait for somebody to give me a ticket. I realized there was always somebody waiting for someone else who didn’t show up, see me, and just ask ‘Do you want to see Yo-Yo Ma?’ I cannot remember a day that I didn’t go to Symphony Hall and I didn’t get to see the concert.”
After completing his education at Longy, Ruiz stayed in Boston and is pursuing a full-time performance career. He released his debut album, Desde Lejos, which he says opened a door for him to meet his closest mentors, Paquito D’Rivera and Chucho Valdés.
MENTORS
Ruiz first met Paquito D’Rivera in 2014 through a great moment of serendipity. D’Rivera had left his clarinet at his hotel and couldn’t go back to get it in time for his performance. Grammy Award-winning bassist of the Paquito D’Rivera Quintet, Oscar Stagnaro, knew that Ruiz was in the audience and likely had his instrument with him. Ruiz lent D’Rivera his clarinet for the show, and the two stayed in touch afterward, trading books, songs, and Facebook comments over the years. Through the strong encouragement of D’Rivera’s sister, Ruiz came to play, collaborate, and work for D’Rivera.
Ruiz met Chucho Valdés through his work with D’Rivera—his first job for Valdés was creating a piano transcription of D’Rivera’s La Fleur De Cayenne, which Ruiz had also recorded for his first album. Ruiz says it’s a “masterclass” every time he works with Valdés and D’Rivera: “The two of them, Paquito and Chucho, are great, great mentors…I feel very lucky.”
Ruiz sees D’Rivera and Valdés as standouts in their field, not just because of their talent but because of their kindness and the high value they place on the people they work with and experiencing human connections.
Valdés praises Juan as “very contemporary and original…the sound of his clarinet and soprano saxophone is beautiful. I consider his music to be of the highest quality and at a very high level.”
LIFE LESSONS
Ruiz measures his success based on the good he puts into the world, not the measurable successes in his career:
“I believe what defines me is to be kind, to be a good person, to help others…winning a competition won’t say much…I don’t get attached to those things: ‘I need to win. I need to do this, I need to do that.’ No, I’m going to do it.”
Like his mentors, human connection is of the highest importance to Ruiz. He places a lot of value in his interpersonal relationships. When reflecting on the mentorships he has had over the years, he always returns to Longy and the people that guided him through his education. “I like to stay in touch,” he says, “relationships are what make us happy…it’s not the Grammy awards, it’s basically human beings that we love to share with…I think that’s been the thing with Longy, and Longy’s always been very supportive of me all these years.”
Juan Ruiz joins Chucho Valdés on the Pickman Hall stage at Longy’s 2025 Gala on Monday, April 14. All donations support scholarships for Longy students. If you are unable to attend, consider making a gift.
Chorriño by Chucho Valdés arr: Juan Ruiz