19-year-old Alondra plays the piano in
Mexico City.
Alondra’s accomplishments are as diverse and
numerous as the projects she has undertaken. In
2017, she began a precedent setting three-year
tenure as music director of the Queensland,
Australia Symphony. An official cultural ambassador
of her homeland, she is the living embodiment of
Mexico’s rich artistic heritage wherever she
performs. Frequent engagements with opera legend
Plácido Domingo have served to further broaden
Alondra’s appeal while her role in creating innovative
interdisciplinary educational programs for youth in
New York and Mexico has led to collaborations with
an eclectic group of artists. Among her partners
in this endeavor have been such notables as
actor Robert Redford, choreographer Christopher
Wheeldon, Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade,
Argentine composer and musician Gustavo
Santaolalla, and Cuba-born vocal superstar Gloria
Estefan.
The journey of a symphony conductor, Alondra
notes, is long. “But the professional life of a
conductor is also long, because it just gets better
over time. One learns and one matures.”
But the conductor also has her eye on
something that’s far afield from commanding the
world’s elite orchestras with her baton. Of all things,
it involves a clown. She has been collaborating with
Mexico City-based clown Gabriela Muñoz on a
production featuring orchestra and Muñoz’s
theatrics. “Gabriela and I have been working on this
project for some time,” Alondra confides. “We’ve
written the script together. It’s something new for me
because I’m not just conducting – I’m actually
creating a whole performance that involves things
other than just music.”
Alondra de la Parra. Photo by Óscar Turco.
24 www. lat inastyle.com LATINAStyle Vol . 26, No. 1, 2020
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