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GRAMMY Award and LATIN GRAMMY Award winner, Carlos Fernando Lopez (“Carlitos Lopez”), is a producer, composer and conductor who focuses on the intersection and interaction between classical and popular music. Carlos recently won a LATIN GRAMMY award in 2022 for Best Christian Album (Marcos Witt - "Vivire") and in 2020, in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition with the piece “Sacre”.

 

Carlos’ first musical influence came from his grandfather who was an opera singer. Surrounded by opera and classical music, Carlos began his training as a musician studying bassoon when he was 10 years old at the Tolima Conservatory. Years later, he moved with his family to Bogotá and studied piano and composition at the National Conservatory of Colombia. When he was 14 years old, he won the Young Performers Competition of the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and performed as a piano soloist with this orchestra.

 

Carlos holds a Magna Cum Laude degree in Music Production and a Master's in Composition from the University of Miami - Frost School of Music. Currently he is a doctoral candidate in Orchestral Conducting under the tutelage of acclaimed conductor Gerard Schwarz. He has collaborated in more than 200 songs of artists such as Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Jennifer López, Marc Anthony, Alejandro Sanz, Fonseca, Andres Cepeda, Pablo Alborán, among others. He also co-produced the 50th-anniversary celebration album of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogotá which won a LATIN GRAMMY for Best Engineered Album. In 2016, he participated as orchestrator and conductor for NASA and Fusion TV’s virtual experience game "Mars 2030" with the London Symphony Orchestra.

 

Carlos strongly believes in the profound impact of music in life and the transformative power of education. He became a college teacher at the early age of 18 in the Superior Academy of Arts of Bogotá. He worked there as an Assistant Professor, Music Department Director, and Director of the accreditation committee, among others. Carlos conducted the project that transformed the Superior Academy into the School of Arts of District University. After that, he was appointed as Advisor For The President of the University, Carlos Ossa Escobar, in the process of restructuring the university. He also coordinated the National Plan of Music for Coexistence with the Colombian Culture Ministry in 110 small towns of Colombia. Carlos also served as the academic advisor for Canzion Institute of Music, an institution with more than 65 schools worldwide.