FOLLOWING A FAST RISING INTERNATIONAL CAREER WITH RECENT HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDING STUTTGART STATE OPERA AND SELECTION FOR THE TAKI ALSOP CONDUCTING FELLOWSHIP.
© Jesus Cornejo Tragaluz
“I don’t try to be somebody else. I simply bring who I am to every orchestra.”
Yudania Gómez Heredia
15 SEPTEMBER 2026 (TORONTO, ON) — Decca Records is delighted to announce the signing of Cuban conductor, composer and organist Yudania Gómez Heredia, marking the beginning of a new recording relationship with the label. Yudania will release a new album on Decca Records, with further details to be announced in due course.
An artist whose musical life has never fitted neatly into a single category, Yudania brings together orchestral and choral conducting, composition and organ performance, shaped by Cuban traditions, European church music, contemporary repertoire, jazz and improvisation. Her ability to communicate with audiences both in the concert hall and online has also helped her build a distinctive international profile.
Yudania is currently conducting the Heritage Orchestra on Rosalía’s international LUX tour. The tour has already taken her to major venues including the O2 Arena in London, Madison Square Garden in New York, Movistar Arena in Santiago, Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot and the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.
As pop artists increasingly draw on orchestral and classical traditions, Yudania is part of a new generation of classical musicians bringing that expertise into wider contemporary culture. Her most recent work is one example of that growing exchange, bringing her orchestral experience to a major global pop production while she continues to build her career firmly within the classical world.
Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, Yudania began singing as a child and started composing while still at school. “In seventh grade I wrote my first piece for piano,” she later recalled. “And then I never stopped.” She went on to study choral conducting and composition in Havana before moving to Germany in 2015, where she now lives. There, she continued her studies in church music and organ improvisation before completing master’s degrees in choral and orchestral conducting in Nuremberg.
That sense of identity is central to how Yudania sees herself as an artist. During her studies, watching back a recording of herself rehearsing an orchestra became a defining moment: “I see myself in the video conducting the orchestra, with my afro loose, and I thought: ‘what a beautiful thing.’”
Alongside her work on the podium, Yudania has cultivated a significant online following, growing her Instagram audience to 188,000. By sharing her journey as a conductor and composer, she has built an engaged community around her work and introduced audiences to the wide range of musical influences and traditions that shape her artistic world.
In 2027, Yudania will join the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Mentoring Program as a mentee under Marin Alsop. Her classical conducting career has included Purcell’s The Fairy queen in the JoIN at the Stuttgart State Opera . She was also selected for the Chineke! Orchestra Assistant Conductor Scheme and in 2025 assisted Jonathon Heyward and Chineke! Orchestra at the BBC Proms. That same year, she received First Prize at conducting competitions in Plovdiv and Marktoberdorf. Her growing profile has also led to her signing with Harrison Parrott in association with Polyarts for Management.
Her approach to conducting remains collaborative. “For me, conducting is above all about listening to the musicians and guiding them. It isn’t about controlling, but communicating clearly what you want.”
Yudania’s wide musical outlook also shapes her work as a composer. “You can learn from everywhere,” she says, and Misa Afrocubana is a striking example of that philosophy. The work brings the structure of the Catholic Mass together with Afro Cuban musical traditions, drawing directly on her own heritage and musical identity. “It has the structure of a Catholic Mass, and I put my identity into it,” she has said.
Speaking about joining Decca, Yudania says: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Decca Records. It’s a label with an extraordinary musical legacy, and I am excited to join a roster that includes artists and ensembles as distinctive and inspiring as Max Richter and Chineke! Orchestra. What excites me most is Decca’s ambition for the future and its commitment to unique artists. I couldn’t imagine a better home for this next chapter and my new album. There’s so much I’m looking forward to sharing—and this is only the beginning.”
Moema Parrott, CEO of HarrisonParrott Group and Associated Companies, says: “Yudania is a unique and multifaceted artist. It is exciting the way she approaches classical music on her own terms. We look forward to seeing what the future holds. As with all Yudania does, it will be bright and push us all to change our views!”
Laura Monks, President of Decca Records, says: “We are thrilled to be working with Yudania who has proven herself to be one of the most exciting young classical talents of her generation. Decca has always been a home for classical artists whose work reaches beyond the concert hall, and Yudania is a wonderful example of where that can go next”.
Further details of her new album will be announced in due course.
About Yudania Gómez Heredia
Conductor, composer and organist
Yudania Gómez Heredia is a Cuban conductor, composer and organist whose work spans orchestral and choral conducting, composition and organ performance.
She was awarded the Young Female Conductors Scholarship of the Bergische Symphoniker Orchestra Academy for the 2024/2025 season and was a member of the Chineke! Orchestra Assistant Conductor Scheme. In September 2025, she assisted Jonathon Heyward and the Chineke! Orchestra at the BBC Proms. She has also been selected as a mentee for the Taki Alsop Fellowship Mentoring Program 2027 under Marin Alsop.
Gómez Heredia has conducted a wide range of ensembles, including the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Ensemble Reflektor, Chineke! Junior Orchestra, Neustädter Kantorei Erlangen and Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, as well as symphonic wind orchestras in Valencia and São Paulo.
In 2022, she made her conducting debut with Mid(Summer)night Dreams, a collaboration between Staatstheater Nürnberg and the Nuremberg University of Music. In the 2024/2025 season, she conducted Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at the Stuttgart State Opera in a production by Olivia Hyunsin Kim.
As a composer, her catalogue spans choral, chamber, piano, vocal and organ music, including Misa Afrocubana. Born in Villa Clara, Cuba, she studied at the National School of Arts and the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana before moving to Germany in 2015. She later studied church music and organ improvisation in Regensburg and completed master’s degrees in choral conducting and orchestral conducting at the Nuremberg University of Music.
Her awards include First Prize at the International Choir Conducting Competition Krikor Zetinyan in Plovdiv 2025, First Prize at the International Masterclass and Conducting Competition for Choral Conducting in Marktoberdorf 2025, the 2023 DAAD Prize of the Nuremberg University of Music and the 2014 Musicalia Composition Prize in Havana. In 2025, she composed the official motto song for the Deutsches Chorfest 2025 in Nuremberg.
