Yolotzin Cruz Cedillo is one of Mexico’s leading bassoonists in her generation. She enjoys sharing her love for music and the bassoon with diverse audiences around the world. From 2022 to 2024, Yolotzin served as second bassoonist with the Israel Camerata Jerusalem. She has recently been appointed Assistant Principal Bassoon of the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, a position she will begin in early 2025.
Yolotzin has performed in major concert halls such as the Vienna Konzerthaus, Musikverein, Mozarteum’s Grosser Saal and the Israeli Opera House. As an engaging chamber and orchestra musician, Yolotzin has been part of numerous festivals, such as the Salzburg Festpiele, Pitten Classics, Sommernachstklänge, the International Music Festival in Querétaro, among others. She has also performed with different ensembles, such as the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Synchron Stage Orchestra, Vienna Ensemble, Orchestra Divertimento Vienese, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, WISE: Vienna International Soloist Ensemble, etc. In 2022, she made her solo debut in Vienna, performing the Weber Bassoon Concerto with the Concentus21 Orchestra.
Yolotzin has been laureate in numerous competitions. In 2015, she won first prize at the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition. With her wind quintet “Wiener me’lausch”, she was awarded the first absolute prize at the “6th International Music Competition of the City of Palmanova”, in Italy with 99 out of 100 points, and with the same ensemble she was one of the award winners at the Fidelio Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Yolotzin was also finalist of the “First International Bassoon Orchestral Excerpts Competition” in 2022. The dedication and excellence in Yolotzin’s studies has been acknowledged with scholarships from Mexico’s CONACYT-CULTURA program and with the first prize of the Santander Estudios Legacy scholarship.
Among her achievements in the classical music world, Yolotzin’s final Master Recital has been portrayed by her alma mater as an outstanding performance. Her arrangement of Clara Schumann Three Romances Op. 22 for Bassoon and Piano was selected to be part of that year’s edition “Best of MuK.Finals 2022” CD production. In January of 2023, she was also invited to perform in Vienna’s Musikverein as part of the “Cast off! Muk graduates recital,” performing the Camille Saint-Saëns Bassoon and Piano Sonata Op. 168 with pianist Sandra Jost.
The bassoon and musical development in Yolotzin has been strongly enriched with masterclasses by Milan Tukovič, Dag Jensen, Ole Kristian Dahl, Catherine Larsen-Maguire, Gustavo Núñez and Mor Biron.
Yolotzin has had the privilege of having excellent teachers and mentors who positively influenced her musicianship. With a strong sense of community, Yolotzin enjoys sharing her knowledge and teaching the next generation of bassoonists. Recently, she was part of the bassoon faculty for the masterclasses at the First Bassoon Festival of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Prior to this, she has given masterclasses at the Escuela Superior de Música del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, in Mexico City. In her hometown of Oaxaca, she has volunteered since 2015 to teach at the Center of Music Iniciation and at the Santa Cecilia Music Center.
Born in 1999, Yolotzin grew up in Oaxaca, Mexico into a musical family. From a young age, she learned violin and piano with her parents and at the age of twelve, she started her bassoon lessons with Cecilia Rodríguez Salvador, principal bassoonist of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. In 2016, Yolotzin emigrated to Vienna to study at the University of Music and Arts of the City of Vienna under the guidance of Marcelo Padilla, where she obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, both with distinction. She continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with Volker Tessmann.
Yolotzin plays on a Moosmann No. 200 Soloist Model bassoon.