Alondra de la Parra

Career overview

Alondra de la Parra is a Mexican American conductor born in New York City on October 31, 1980. She is the daughter of writer and editor Manelick de la Parra and sociologist and educator Graciela Borja. Her musical training began at age seven with the piano, followed by the cello at age 13. She later studied in England and the United States, where she was mentored by Kurt Masur and Kenneth Kiesler. She also received training at the Manhattan School of Music, focusing on piano and orchestral conducting.

In 2004, at the age of 23, she founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, based in New York. Throughout her career, she has directed more than 70 orchestras across several continents, including the Houston Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, and the Orchestre de Paris. She serves as an official Cultural Ambassador of Mexico and has held the position of Music Director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, making her the first female principal conductor of an Australian symphony orchestra. In addition to her conducting work, she has been credited in the music department for film productions including Tokyo!, Morelos, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: T.H.A.M.O.S. Her family moved to Mexico when she was two years old.