When Carlos Fernando Lopez first came to the Frost School of Music at 32, he had already had a full musical life as a classical pianist and university educator in his native Colombia. But he wanted to grow creatively and professionally.
He found his path to doing so at the Frost School, which not only enabled Lopez to become successful in new areas but to connect his talents in new and innovative ways. He first earned a bachelor’s in music production in 2012 and quickly became a successful producer and engineer for Latin stars such as Marc Anthony and Alejandro Sanz. He returned to get a master’s in classical composition in 2020, earning a Latin GRAMMY award for a piece he composed for his degree. He immediately proceeded to earn a doctorate in classical conducting in 2023, enabling him to lead a classical orchestra that accompanied global superstar Bad Bunny’s 2024 "Most Wanted" tour, bridging pop and classical music on a vast scale.
Lopez says the Frost School was unique in enabling him to explore these disparate musical worlds. “The school that embraced people from different backgrounds was Frost,” he said. “I found an environment that embraced who I am—a classical musician who also does popular music.”
Recently, Lopez has been returning to his roots in education and working with young people. In 2024 and 2025, he was the musical director for the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation’s annual celebration of their scholarship awards, directing their young recipients in performances at the Knight Center for Music Innovation. In September, the foundation brought Lopez to work with the jazz and classical ensembles at Miami’s New World School of the Arts (NWSA), an acclaimed public arts magnet school.
“It’s very satisfying,” said Lopez of helping young musicians. “It resonates with my past.” And with his present. “It was an immense opportunity to build the students’ confidence and skills,” he said of his visit to NWSA. “To try to be a mentor and to light a spark in them. I was in a conservatory too. And something I have learned since then is that my vision of the music world was very narrow. So it was very fulfilling to see how their confidence grew, how they were challenged, and how their awareness increased about careers in music.”
In the Latin pop world, Lopez is widely known by the affectionate diminutive Carlitos, perhaps because he towers well over six feet tall. But he is a gentle giant, with a generous spirit and deep musical intelligence.
He grew up in Tolima, in the Colombian Andes, and studied in the conservatory there as a child. His grandfather, a former opera singer, inculcated a love of music in him. Lopez was transfixed the first time he heard an orchestra at age 10. “It was like seeing the ocean for the first time,” Lopez said. “That moment marked me.” The family later moved to Bogotá, where Lopez studied at the National Conservatory of Colombia, winning a prestigious national piano competition at age 15 and performing as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra. That led to an invitation, at 18, to teach at the Superior Academy of Arts of Bogotá, one of the country’s leading arts schools, where his students were initially older than he was. He remained for 14 years, becoming the director of the music department and the accreditation committee.
But when he first arrived at the Frost School with his wife, a classical pianist, and their 5-year-old daughter, Lopez was a little overwhelmed. “Everyone was younger than me, and they knew a lot about music production,” he said. But he was also inspired. “I loved that it was a new kind of creativity and skill that is very different from the piano,” he said. “All the technical aspects of producing an album captivated me.”
On graduation, Raul Murciano, the vice dean for administration, introduced Lopez to another Frost School alumnus, the successful Miami producer Julio Reyes Copello, who began hiring Lopez to work on albums by major Latin artists, including as engineer and arranger for Ricky Martin’s “A Quien Quiera Escuchar,” which won a GRAMMY in 2016.
Lopez was fascinated by producing. “Every album is a journey,” he said. “You have to get into another person’s creative world, understand how they want to express themselves, and use everything you have at your disposal to bring their music to life.”
But in 2018, he returned to the Frost School. “I felt like I was falling into a rut,” he said. “I went back to my source, which is classical music, for more knowledge.”
And he found it. Lopez praises professor Charles Mason, the chair of the composition program, for helping him find his own sound. “He gave me a lot of tools, but at the same time he pushed me to develop my own voice,” Lopez said, pointing to the Latin GRAMMY for best contemporary classical composition he won for “Sacre,” which he composed for his master’s degree. (It featured Lopez on piano and fellow alumnus Jose Valentino Ruiz on flute.)
But he said his studies with professor Gerard Schwarz, the illustrious conductor and orchestral leader who heads the Frost School’s conducting program, were the most illuminating. “I learned so much that it blew my mind,” said Lopez. “I believe the orchestra and its repertoire represent one of the greatest achievements in human artistry. The way my mentor maestro Schwarz helped me understand, his insight and experience, was the culmination of everything I’ve learned in music.”
Schwarz took Lopez as one of just four doctoral students, despite the younger man’s lack of experience. “For me, the most important thing is to have people with extraordinary potential, and Carlos has that,” he said in 2024. “It has been thrilling to see his growth and to see this extremely gifted man flourish.”
A key to Lopez’s growth has been the way he applies his classical music skills to the pop world. “Classical music helps me understand better, interpret faster, navigate better,” he said. That made him the ideal person to answer Bad Bunny’s request to organize, conduct, and write music for what Lopez dubbed the Philharmonic Orchestra Project, for the artist’s 2024 tour. Almost half the musicians were Frost School students or alumni. Lopez also composed music for “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana,” the artist’s album that year, sharing in two of its Latin GRAMMY nominations.
Lopez continues to balance pop and classical music. The Latin Recording Academy, which produces the Latin GRAMMY awards, has made him the musical director of their Person of the Year gala, which will honor legendary Spanish singer Rafael the night before the Nov. 13 awards in Las Vegas. The event’s orchestra will include four Frost School alumni, as well as faculty member Craig Morris and student Annabella Paolucci, a violinist studying media production and scoring.
He just received two regional Emmy nominations for audio production for PBS productions of the Frost Symphony Orchestra performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and a performance by the Palm Beach Symphony, where Schwarz is musical director, and shares in the nominations as creator and conductor of both concert broadcasts.
While he doesn’t know where his journey will take him next, Lopez is excited about the future.
“I hope to continue growing,” Lopez said. “Learning is what brought me here, and I need to keep learning. By learning, I mean my own, as well as helping others learn. I would like to be involved in an educational context with a lot of creativity. But I’m open to what comes next.”
