MARK ANTHONY CRUZ earned his Master of Music in guitar performance at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University - San Marcos) where he is now Professor of Guitar.

As a composer, Cruz's music shares similarities with Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Lennox Berkely, according to a review by Soundboard Magazine. Cruz has been published by Shawnee Press, Soundboard Magazine, MelBay and Clear Note Publications while managing his own company, MAC Publications. He was the first prize winner of the Austin Classical Guitar Society sponsored composition competition in 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2008, Mr. Cruz was commissioned by University Baptist Church in Austin to compose an Anthem for choir and organ for their 100th anniversary celebration. He was commissioned by the Classical Minds Guitar Festival to compose a pair of guitar ensemble works for their 2009 conference. Mark Cruz's Triptyich for solo guitar has been performed internationally by guitar virtuoso Adam Holzman. Most recently, Cruz was asked to compose a guitar duet for the Hanser-McClellan Guitar duo for their Springfield, Illinois Classical Guitar Society performance in November 2009.

As a performer, Mark Cruz was a two-time feature artist with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. He was the 2nd prize recipient at the National Finger Picking Championship at Winfield, Kansas in 1993 and 2001. He was a feature artist at the Eastfield Guitar Festival in Dallas, TX in 2008 and in the Classical Minds Guitar Festival in Houston, TX in 2009. Cruz's all-original CDs Pequeñas Piezas para Mi Padre and Piezas Para El Mundo have been featured on the internationally syndicated radio program 'Classical Guitar Alive' hosted by Tony Morris. Both Cds received positive reviews in the scholarly periodical, Soundboard.

Cruz resides in Austin, Texas with his wife and two children.