Yudania Gómez Heredia: The Conductor at the Center of Rosalía’s Tour

The whole story begins – as is common nowadays – with an Instagram Reel. At the time, relatively unknown (to the general public, at least) composer, organist, and conductor Yudania Gómez Heredia posted a Reel analyzing Rosalía’s single “Berghain” and showcasing how the song's sound can be traced back to the classical compositions by giants like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Vivaldi, and Gabriel Fauré.

Shortly after, the video went viral and caught the attention of Rosalía herself. The singer and her team reached out to Heredia, who was subsequently selected as conductor coordinating the Heritage Orchestra, a British non-classical orchestra, at the Lux Tour.

The tour kicked off on March 15, 2026, and almost immediately, everyone started asking: Who is the conductor?

So, who is actually Yudania Gómez Heredia, and why is her story so important in today’s musical landscape?

Heredia was born in Cuba, where she began her musical training at an early age at the National School of Arts, studying music theory, singing, choral conducting, and composition. To further her studies, she attended the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana before moving to Regensburg, Germany, in 2015, where she pursued two master’s programs at the Nuremberg University of Music in choral and orchestral conducting.

While she is yet to achieve universal recognition among music fans and the public, she’s already been building a name for herself in the classical music world. Her accolades include prizes at competitions such as the International Choir Conducting Competition Krikor Zetinyan in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; the International Masterclass for Choral Conducting with Conducting Competition Marktoberdorf 2025; the 2023 DAAD Prize of the Nuremberg University of Music; and the 2014 Musicalia Composition Prize in Havana.

Beyond her technical skills and expertise, part of what makes Heredia resonate so strongly with audiences – both live and online – is the visibility and physicality of her performance.

Conducting itself is not a hidden art form – in fact, many conductors are renowned for their distinctive styles, interpretations, and stage presence. What shifts in this context is its visibility beyond the classical field. On Rosalía’s stage, conducting becomes more accessible and understandable to wider, contemporary audiences, many of whom may be encountering it in this form for the first time.

Heredia’s gestures, facial expressions, and movements do not just guide the orchestra but also convey emotion and intensity. In doing so, they translate seamlessly into today’s highly visual and fast-paced digital environment, where short-form video content often shapes how music is discovered and experienced.

Her consistent social media presence further supports this by enabling her to engage more with listeners and connect them to classical music. To some extent, she functions not only as a conductor and composer but also as a recognizable digital media figure. This also helps reshape the role of a conductor, transforming what was once mainly confined to the concert hall into something shared, interpreted, and emotionally experienced online.

While her rise may not come as a surprise – Heredia’s talent and musicianship are evident both in her performances and on social media, where she has gathered thousands of followers – her growing recognition is significant for numerous reasons.

Integrating orchestras into popular music performances is not new, and the Heritage Orchestra might know that better than anyone else. Throughout the years, the ensemble has collaborated with some of the biggest artists, including Björk, Jamie Cullum, Dua Lipa, Raye, and more.

However, Rosalía, together with Heredia, seems to take this to another level, making the orchestra – and the classical music that underlies and shapes the sound – a central element of the stage and thus the performance (quite literally – the orchestra occupies an entire secondary stage on Rosalía’s tour, shaped as a Latin cross).

Classical music has been experiencing a resurgence in recent years, particularly among young audiences. According to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2022 research, two-thirds (65%) of respondents under 35 reported listening to classical music regularly. In the 2024 edition of the study, 25% of UK adults were interested in exploring orchestral or classical music, an increase from 15% the year before.

Still, having an acclaimed pop artist give such prominence to the genre, as well as to instrumentalists and a conductor, can have an even greater impact. It may encourage younger audiences to establish or deepen their connection not only with orchestral music but also with contemporary artists, composers, and conductors working across genres.

As discussed in our article on women in classical music, women were historically discouraged from – and often barred from – composing, conducting, publishing, and performing publicly. As a result, to this day, classical music continues to be shaped by a lack of female representation across many fields and positions, alongside a long-standing struggle for gender balance and recognition.

While there have been improvements in some areas – for instance, the 2024 BBC Proms report from the Donne Foundation found that 47% of the concerts included at least one piece by a woman – the pace of change remains slow. In that same case, these works by female composers accounted for only around 8.6% of the total stage time, a small share compared to works by male composers. Women also remain underrepresented as concertmasters, section leaders, soloists, and in leadership roles such as music directors and principal conductors.

For this reason, Heredia’s role as the conductor on the Lux Tour marks a significant milestone not only in contemporary pop performance but also within the broader classical music landscape. She challenges long-standing expectations of what a traditional and modern classical composer, performer, or conductor should look like – often defined as white and male – while helping to expand the conversation beyond just gender into more intersectional spaces. Her presence on the Lux Tour – and her newfound visibility – may not only amplify this discourse among younger audiences but also inspire and encourage more young women to pursue careers in classical music.

Beyond questions of representation and visibility, Heredia’s rise also reflects a broader shift in how audiences engage – or want to engage – with music today. In the age of streaming, where access to recorded music is instant and unlimited, listening has become more effortless – or, some might say, even passive at times.

In this context, live performance is gaining new importance, offering audiences a way to experience music in a more tangible, immediate, and deeply musical manner. As a result, music fans are showing a growing preference for performances that emphasize musicianship, live interpretation, and human presence – an aspect that may become even more important with ongoing AI advancements.

The presence of a full orchestra at a stadium pop show introduces a sense of novelty, unpredictability, and depth – and simultaneously shifts the focus back to the craft behind music and its roots.

That’s why Rosalía’s choice to feature an orchestra and its conductor on its own dedicated stage during her stadium tour feels especially meaningful. It shows a deliberate, creative decision to emphasize the skill of live musicians – once central to popular performances but less visible in the era of highly produced shows – and to elevate instrumentalists and conductors as essential, rather than supporting, figures in modern music.

By placing the orchestra at the center of the performance, Rosalía also challenges conventional hierarchies of the pop concert format, drawing even more attention to the interplay between composition, arrangement, and live interpretation.