Carlos "Carlitos" Lopez learned how to bring together the worlds of pop and classical music in the three degrees he earned at the Frost School of Music. He integrated them into a groundbreaking collaboration with superstar Bad Bunny on the artist’s 2024 Most Wanted tour, leading an orchestra that accompanied Bad Bunny in stadiums across the country, playing a combination of Bad Bunny’s urban pop and classical music that Lopez orchestrated.
That group, which Lopez named the Philharmonic Orchestra Project, or POP, was full of Frost School students and alumni whom he could count on for the musical skills and flexible mindset required to pull off this unprecedented undertaking. But POP didn’t stop with the Bad Bunny tour. The orchestra performed at a major private event during the Miami Grand Prix in May. That concert was the latest in Lopez’s continuation of the project, expanding his vision of uniting musical worlds while offering new opportunities to Frost School students and alumni fostered in the same boundary-crossing ethos that he was.
“I created the ensemble because I believe orchestral music belongs everywhere,” said Lopez. “One thing I learned about playing classical music for almost a million people on the Bad Bunny tour is that we should think of orchestral music outside the traditional context of the concert hall. I think it belongs to stadiums, tours, festivals—to all the spaces where contemporary culture is happening.”
Lopez began as a classical pianist and university educator in his native Colombia, then earned a bachelor’s in production, a master's in classical composition, and a doctorate in classical conducting at the Frost School. He has parlayed those disparate degrees into success as a GRAMMY- and Latin GRAMMY-winning pop producer and a classical composer and conductor.
“Because of my background, I feel the urge to build a bridge in which I can connect the traditional practice of orchestral music and contemporary culture,” he said. “I think many musicians who come from classical training are increasingly seeing how the worlds of touring, recording, film, Latin music, and pop production are not only a viable but a huge market.”
Phillip Morris International asked Lopez to create an orchestral program for a private concert during the Formula 1 weekend. Lopez assembled 31 musicians, half of them Frost School students or alumni, for what he called “a hybrid show that connected orchestral music with the energy of Miami and racing culture.” They played the F1 themes, as well as music by Dua Lipa, the Wknd, Queen, Coldplay, Bad Bunny, and Miami Sound Machine, and the overtures Lopez composed for the Bad Bunny tour. They collaborated with Brazilian cellist and DJ Clarissa Vieira on electronic music and accompanied GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Paula Arenas on the classic bolero “Historia de Amor.”
Lopez says Frost School artists bring not just the skills but also the mindset required for these kinds of concerts
“I know from personal experience that the school is a door for versatility and openness,” Lopez said. “So many of the musicians from the Frost School are classically trained at a very high level but also comfortable working across genres and with technology, recording, and improvising. That’s why people from the Frost School are important to me.”
POP was also the ensemble for the 2025 Latin GRAMMYS Person of the Year gala last fall, where Lopez was music director. He has used the group for recordings, most notably for Humbe, a major Latin pop artist. He says these high-profile efforts are leading to more invitations for POP, and he will continue asking Frost School artists to join them.
“One of the goals of the ensemble is to create real-world artistic opportunities, where musicians—some of them young, some more experienced—can be exposed to high-level productions and different crossover performance environments,” Lopez said. “I know what these students are experiencing because I was in their shoes, so I want to create an environment outside school that is inspiring to them.”
