Dr. José Ruiz
Dr. José Ruiz, assistant professor of music business at Lee University, has been nominated for a 2018 Suncoast Regional EMMY Award.
Dr. Ruiz collaborated with director Mateo Vengoechea on “Art Vessel,” which was nominated in the Best Cultural Documentary category. The film was produced by MVProductions and is set in Florida.
“As Miami grows as an art hub, we put ourselves smack dab in the middle of this movement by interviewing and portraying both up-and-coming and established artists in the Miami scene,” Dr. Ruiz said. “With interviews from nationally known artist-entrepreneur Gabriel Gimenez to New York fashion visionary Jeff Staple, ‘Art Vessel’ looks to put the right eye on Miami art with a visit to Miami's Art Basel, its murals, and some of New York's best street art.”
Dr. Ruiz served as a saxophonist for the film’s score as well as a co-producer for some of the musical content in the project. He had previously worked with MVProductions on two other documentaries before “Art Vessel.”
“It’s an honor to be associated with this team of hard-working media professionals,” Dr. Ruiz said. “I’m elated to have contributed to the musical aspects of this documentary."
When asked about his passion for teaching music technology, Dr. Ruiz said, "It's a joy to be able to teach students how to score visual media and train them up to a level in which we can collaborate in many industry-level projects. We have so many gifted students here at Lee University."
Dr. Ruiz also worked with long-time collaborator Eduardo Jaramillo, who served as the principal film scorer for the documentary. The two had previously released “I Make You Want To Move,” a collaborative album that garnered their first Latin GRAMMY Award nomination for Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album.
Dr. Ruiz joined Lee’s faculty in 2016 as an assistant professor of music business and teaches courses on music business, music technology, applied lessons for electric bass, and directs one of the small jazz ensembles. He is the recipient of two Latin GRAMMY Award Nominations, has served as a film scorer for Hayden5Media, and currently serves as strategic communications director for Trevor James Flutes and Saxophones UK Co.
He has performed at esteemed venues such as Carnegie Hall and Tanglewood. He is a TEDx presenter, 49-time DownBeat Student Music Award recipient, 2018 Global Music Award winner, and a 2017 Gold Medal Parents’ Choice® Award winner.
The Suncoast Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a nonprofit Florida corporation dedicated to excellence in television. It offers annual EMMY Awards called The Suncoast EMMY Awards to television markets in the entire state of Florida; Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, and New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; Thomasville, Georgia; and Puerto Rico.
To learn more about the Suncoast EMMY Awards, go to https://suncoastchapter.org/awards.