Julia Cruz has an enthusiastic, dynamic, and deeply communicative presence on the podium—qualities that allow her to forge strong connections with both orchestras and audiences alike. Her repertoire ranges from Haydn to contemporary works, with a particular focus on opera and new music. She has been a conducting fellow at Lucerne Festival 2025, and a Taki Alsop Conducting Fellow since 2022. In 2021 she was awarded Second Prize at the 2021 Blue Danube/Béla Bartók Opera Conducting Competition.

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Highlights of her 2025–2026 season include return engagements with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México and Oviedo Filarmonía, as well as debuts with Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, and Orquesta de Córdoba, among others. She will also conduct the premiere of Piccolo Orso e la montagna di ghiaccio, Giovanni Sollima's new opera, which will tour in Italy and Spain. After her fellowship at Lucerne Festival, she gets reinvited to work with the Academy orchestra on the Roche-Young Commissions 2026-27.

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In recent seasons, she made her debut with the Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta de Extremadura, Oviedo Filarmonía, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao and Mexico’s National Opera Company, where she conducted the Mexican premiere of Beatrix Cenci. She also returned to OFUNAM and the National Ballet of Mexico, leading the world premiere of Ciudad Delirio and the 2023 production of The Nutcracker at the National Auditorium. As an opera conductor, she has led productions of La Traviata at the Kolozsvári Magyar Opera and L’Elisir d’Amore at the Stara Zagora State Opera, as well as at Ópera Terrassa. She also served as assistant conductor at Teatro Real for the world premiere of Tejas Verdes and a new production of La Vida Breve. ​

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A passionate advocate for contemporary music, she maintains close collaborations with a wide range of living composers.

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Born in Spain in 1996, Julia Cruz began playing trombone at the age of six before discovering her passion for conducting. She studied with Borja Quintas and Miquel Rodrigo at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón, graduating cum laude, and later earned a Master’s degree with distinction in Orchestral Conducting at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences under Arjan Tien. She also studied under Federico Santi, and has participated in masterclasses with Johannes Schlaefli, Marin Alsop, Gregory Vajda, Daniel Oren, Colin Metters, Vladimir Ponkin, and Bruno Aprea, among others