Alondra de la Parra
Music Director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Alondra de la Parra was born October 31, 1980 in New York City, NY. She grew up in Mexico City though and studied piano and cello during her childhood. Around the age of 13 she gained an interest in conducting. Her early education includes St Leonards-Mayfield School and Centre of Research and Musical Studies in Mexico City. For her higher education she returned to New York to study at the Manhattan School of Music. She received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance studying with Jeffrey Cohen and studied conducting with Michael Charry and Kenneth Kiesler, receiving a Masters in Arts in Conducting. Her other conducting teachers are Marin Alsop, Charles Dutoit, and Kurt Masur. De la Parra founded her own ensemble, the Mexican-American Orchestra later known as the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas which unfortunately disbanded due to the lack of funding. She is currently the Music Director for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.