Born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba Luis Haza has earned distinction in the United States and abroad for his roles as conductor, violinist, educator, and human rights advocate.

As conductor, Luis Haza has led the London Symphony Orchestra (including a compact disc recording for RCA Red Seal with acclaimed trumpeter Arturo Sandoval), the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC (including the highly praised premiere of Sandoval's own trumpet concerto), he has also served as Music Director and Conductor of the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras for the past 25 years where he is currently Music Director Emeritus. In April 2002 Mr. Haza received the Washington, DC chapter of the Recording Academy (Grammy Awards) "Heroes Award" and served on the Board of Governors for the Grammy Awards (NARAS), DC Chapter. Mr. Haza was recently Music Director of the Virginia Chamber Orchestra for 10 years, as well as guest conductor of the national orchestras of El Salvador, Panama, and Guatemala, the ASAPH Ensemble (with which he produced the compact disc for Sparrow records entitled "A Taste for the Classics"). Luis Haza has served as Music Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, DC and the Prince William Symphony Orchestra. He was also conductor for the Virginia Ballet Company. From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Haza was conductor of the Orchestra Program for the Masterworks Festival in New York State.

Mr. Haza has an extensive performing career as a concert violinist. For the past 36 years he was first violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. As a solo violinist and recitalist he has performed extensively nationally and internationally in Europe, Central America and the Caribbean as well as the White House. In July 2006 Mr. Haza was featured as the closing event of the Bellagio Dialogue on Migration in Bellagio, Italy. The Bellagio Dialogue was a project of the German Marshall Fund, with generous support from The Rockefeller Foundation, designed to advance and enrich the ongoing debate about migration in the US and Europe.

In 2008-2009 he served on the faculty of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. as a Violin Professor. As an educator, Mr. Haza was Music Director of the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras for the past 25 years, leading its premier ensemble, the American Youth Philharmonic, and overseeing its three other ensembles; Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, and String Ensemble. He was active in the National Symphony Orchestra's American Residencies, teaching, coaching, and presenting workshops and master classes nationwide. Mr. Haza has served on the faculty of the National Symphony Orchestra's Youth Fellowship Program, teaching violin to gifted students. A strong supporter of music programs in public schools and arts education, Mr. Haza frequently serves as orchestra conductor and adjudicator in orchestra festivals, regional, and all-state orchestras across the United States. This role has also taken him abroad, touring Panama with the National Panamanian Youth Orchestra.

Luis Haza began his performing career in Cuba at the age of 11. By the end of the following year, he had toured the provinces of Cuba, obtained his first professional post as Assistant Concertmaster of the Lyric Theater and made his debut as conductor in a program that included one of his own orchestral compositions. After he came to the United States in 1964, he continued his studies on full scholarship at the Curtis Institute of Music, The Peabody Conservatory, and the Blossom Music Festival, with such luminaries as Daniel Majeske, Efrem Zimbalist, Robert Gerle, Eduardo Vidal Aviles, as well as coaches Mstislav Rostropovich and Henryk Szeryng.

Mr. Haza's commitment to the causes of freedom and human rights began at an early age when, for his support of democracy, Fidel Castro executed his father without trial. Haza made his first protest while still in Cuba, rejecting scholarship offers from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union (to study with David Oistrakh in Moscow) because of his political convictions. Mr. Haza's background led him to become a spokesperson in broadcasts to Cuba, and his performances and interviews have been broadcast in Cuba and Latin America on Univision, Television and Radio Marti, La Voz de El Cid Radio as well as Voice of America Europe. Mr. Haza directed the gala "A Celebration of Freedom" for Ambassador and human rights advocate Armando Valladares at the Kennedy Center to benefit the Valladares Foundation, a non-partisan human rights group.

For all his achievements, Mr. Haza has been the recipient of numerous honors. In January 2002, Mr. Haza led the American Youth Philharmonic at New York's Carnegie Hall in a concert titled "The Spirit of Freedom," dedicated to the victims and heroes of September 11, 2001. His work has been recognized by Former President and Mrs. Clinton, Former Governor of Virginia Douglas Wilder, and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the last-named honor commemorating his 10th and 15th anniversary with the American Youth Philharmonic and the Northern Virginia Youth Symphony Association. In May of 2005, Mr. Haza was appointed to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He also served on the grants panel committee for the National Endowment for the Arts. In March 2004 The American Immigration Law Foundation honored him with the distinguished American Immigrant Achievement Award. In addition, the U.S. Congress and the Architect of the Capitol, in Mr. Haza's honor, flew an American flag over the Capitol on Paganini's birthday. In 1996, a scholarship was created in his name for the Kennedy Center Fellowship of the Americas. In 1994 he was chosen as one of the "100 Most Influential Hispanics" by Hispanic Business Magazine. Mr. Haza was also featured in the July 2007 Reader's Digest Selecciones' feature article, "How to Reach the American Dream".

Mr. Haza performs on a 1707 Pietro Guarnerius (de Mantua) violin and Napoleon's Jean Baptiste Villaume picture bow.