Otmaro Ruíz

Venezuelan pianist Otmaro Ruíz was born in Caracas in 1964, and took up both classical guitar and piano at age eight. He studied biology in college, but kept playing keyboards on the side, landing his first professional gig in a pop band in 1980. Three years later, he dropped out of school to focus exclusively on music, and started playing with a variety of jazz and pop artists. In 1986, he joined an advertising production company, where he wrote, arranged, recorded, and/or produced jingles for TV and radio on a daily basis for the next three years. In the meantime, he also pl...