Javier Diaz is a percussionist with the American Symphony Orchestra and several chamber and Latin music groups in the New York area. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York Perspectives Ensemble, Zankel Hall New Music Band, and Hilliard Ensemble, and for Broadway’s productions of Man of La Mancha, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Brooklyn, Phil Collins’s Tarzan, Guys and Dolls, The Wiz, Women on the Verge…, Rocky, In the Heights, The Lion King, and Gloria Estefan’s On Your Feet. His studio/film soundtrack credits include collaborations with jazz greats David Sanborn and Marcus Miller, ECM’s Tituli by Stephen Hartke with the Hilliard Ensemble, Barbershop 3, several HBO films, and many TV and radio commercials.

As an Afro-Cuban percussion specialist, Diaz has appeared with Miami Sound Machine, Sean Kingston, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Lazaro Galarraga’s Afro-Cuban All Stars, percussionists Angel Luis Figueroa, Candido Camero, Román Diaz, and Pedro Martinez, and many more.

Diaz has taught at Fundación del Estado para el Sistema Nacional de Orquestras Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela (FESNOJIV), University of Connecticut, and at his studio in New York City, and led Afro-Cuban percussion seminars, classes, and clinics at the Peabody Institute, University of Southern California, The Juilliard School, the Boston Conservatory, and Mannes School of Music. He has a book on Afro-Cuban percussion called The Afro-Cuban Handbook. His concert music is available through Bachovich Music. He also released an album with world music band Kalunga.

An alumnus of FESNOJIV and the Aspen Music Festival, Diaz holds a BM from the University of Southern California and a MM from The Juilliard School. He is currently on the percussion faculties at Rutgers University, The Juilliard School, and Queens College.