Hildward Leonil Croes (September 7, 1962 – December 17, 2014) was an Aruban musician, composer, arranger and three-time

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

nominee. He had one son, Angelo Kock, and two daughters, Hilyann Croes and Natusha Croes. He also had a grandchild named Kayden Kock. Croes was born on the Caribbean island of Aruba and began performing at a young age as a

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...

with different bands. With Cryptus Confession he recorded an album of original compositions in 1979 which included the number one song "Love Dream".

Education

Croes moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in the early 1980s to study music at Berklee College of Music in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. After obtaining his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

, he continued his graduate studies at

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

where he obtained his Master of Music degree in 1988.

Musical Achievements

In 1989 he was contracted by

Wilfrido Vargas Wilfrido Radamés Vargas Martínez (; born April 24, 1949 in Altamira, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic) is a band leader, trumpeter, vocalist, arranger, composer and producer who was instrumental in making the merengue style a worldwide pheno ...

with whom he toured the world and earned a Grammy nomination for his contribution as co-producer on the album ''Animación''. In the late 1990s he joined ''

Juan Luis Guerra Juan Luis Guerra Seijas (born June 7, 1957) is a Dominican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. He has sold 30 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. Throughout his career, he has wo ...

& 440'' as a keyboardist and programmer and performed concerts throughout

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

, Central,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, as well as the Caribbean and parts of

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. He then went on to join

Chichi Peralta Chi-Chi or variations thereof may refer to: Geography *Chichi (village) or Çiçi, in the Quba Rayon of Azerbaijan * Chi-chi, Nantou, a township in Taiwan People *Chi Chi Gonzalez (born 1992), American baseball pitcher *Chi Chi (record producer ...

& Son Familia in 1997 and won a

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been ...

for best Merengue album in 2001 with ''...De Vuelta Al Barrio''. In 2006, he earned a Latin Grammy nomination for best Merengue album with ''Mas Que Suficiente'' on which he made

musical arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

s and played the accordion,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, and keyboards. He won numerous awards and prizes in his native Aruba and owned a

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

and recording studio.

References

External links

Hildward Croes Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Croes, Hildward 1962 births 2014 deaths Aruban musicians Bowling Green State University alumni Dutch keyboardists Berklee College of Music alumni Aruban emigrants to the United States