Juan Ruiz Casaux

Juan Antonio Ruiz-Casaux y Lopez de Carvajal, V. marqués de Atalaya Bermeja, usually known as Juan Ruiz Casaux (23 December 1889 – 16 January 1972) was a noted Spanish cellist and teacher. Along with Pablo Casals and Gaspar Cassadó, he was a member of the "Three Cs" of the Spanish cello.

Juan Ruiz Casaux was born in San Fernando, Cádiz in 1889. His father was Juan Antonio Ruiz y Lopez de Carvajal, an admiral and a mathematician, and the family tradition was for males to receive naval training. After starting out on that path, he soon abandoned it in 1904 when he entered a music competition in Cadiz at which one of the judges was Manuel de Falla. He had earlier had lessons with Salvador Viniegra, a painter, art patron and a cellist of considerable ability, albeit an amateur. After reaching and surpassing Viniega's standard, he entered the Madrid Royal Conservatory to study under Víctor Mirecki Larramat (who was later to become his father-in-law). He was extremely successful, winning a number of prizes, and he chose to continue his studies in Paris under André Hekking.

He moved to Lisbon, Portugal at the start of the First World War, giving many concerts with the Lisbon Symphony Orchestra under Pedro Blanch. He also gave many chamber music concerts with artists such as José Cubiles (cello), Enrique Fernández Arbós (violin), and José Vianna da Motta, Ricardo Viñes, and Fernandez Ortiz (piano).

In 1915 he was the soloist in the first performance in Spain of Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, under Fernández Arbós (and in 1925 he played the same work under the composer's baton).

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