The Mexican conductor, Alondra de la Parra, has been named Music Director – the first time any Australian orchestra has created such a role – of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. She takes up the position at the start of the 2017-18 season (the orchestra's 70th anniversary season) but will open the QSO’s 2016 season with  Mahler’s Second Symphony on February 27 next year. 

'The QSO is an innovative arts company, with a great vibrancy and truly outstanding musicality. I am truly excited to take on this new role and return to Queensland. Earlier in the year I had the pleasure of working closely with the QSO musicians and team and I’m looking forward to building on the positive connections that flourished during that time,’ commented de la Parra. And the QSO’s Chief Executive, Sophie Galaise, said that ‘The appointment of Alondra de la Parra is a major turning point for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra – not only are we the first in the country to appoint a Music Director, therefore aligning ourselves with the great orchestras of the world, but with our first Music Director we have secured a music leader who could choose to work with any orchestra across the globe.’

De la Parra, born in New York City, moved to Mexico as child where she discovered her desire to become a musician. At 19, she returned to New York to study at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2004 she founded the Orchestra of the Americas with whom she recorded ‘Mi Alma Mexicana’ for Sony Classical, a collection of Latin American orchestra music which achieved Platinum sales in Mexico in less than two months.

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the only Australian state ensemble, operates year-round with 88 full-time musicians. Known for its imaginative and innovative programming, the QSO has achieved acclaim not only for its fiscal prowess (it has substantially increased its revenue) and its audience size (it reached 1.1 million people per annum), but also for attracting some major musicians to perform. 

(Home page photograph: Cicero Rodrigues)