Julia Cruz has established herself as one of the most promising Spanish conductors of her generation. Her work spans the symphonic repertoire, opera, and contemporary music, fields in which she is building an increasingly international career.

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She was a Taki Alsop Conducting Awardee and was awarded Second Prize at the Blue Danube / Béla Bartók Opera Conducting Competition in 2021. In 2025, she was selected as a Conducting Fellow at the Lucerne Festival and has been re-invited as Guest Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra through 2027.

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She recently made her debut with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain as Associate Conductor to Thomas Adès during the orchestra’s tour culminating at the BBC Proms. Highlights of her 2026/27 season include first invitations to conduct the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, as well as return engagements with the Orquesta Nacional de España and the Sinfónica de Tenerife. Her growing commitment to contemporary repertoire will also include a project with the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España alongside members of Klangforum Wien. On the operatic and ballet stage, she will conduct a new production of The Nutcracker with the Compañía Nacional de Danza de México and the Teatro de la Zarzuela’s Proyecto Zarza.

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Cruz has also conducted the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, the Orquesta de Extremadura, Oviedo Filarmonía, the Sinfónica de Navarra, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, and the Compañía Nacional de Ópera de México, where she conducted the Mexican premiere of Beatrix Cenci. She has also returned to collaborate with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM  and the Compañía Nacional de Danza de México, conducting the world premiere of Marcela Rodríguez’s Ciudad Delirio. She served as Assistant Conductor at Teatro Real for the world premiere of Jesús Torres’s Tejas Verdes and a new production of Manuel de Falla’s La vida breve. She has conducted L'elisir d'amore at the Stara Zagora State Opera, as well as La traviata at the Hungarian Opera of Cluj (Kolozsvári Magyar Opera).

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A passionate advocate of contemporary music, Cruz maintains close artistic relationships with a wide range of leading composers of today.

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Born in 1996, Julia Cruz began playing the trombone at the age of six before discovering her passion for conducting. She studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón, graduating cum laude, before completing a Master's degree in Orchestral Conducting with distinction at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences . She also studied with Federico Santi and has participated in masterclasses with Johannes Schlaefli, Marin Alsop, Daniel Oren and Colin Metters, among others.