Woman on the podium?
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Georg Etscheit -
When Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra made her debut at the Mozart Week music festival in Austria in January 2019, the critics were full of praise. Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung described her as a “charismatic conductor” and wondered how long it would be before she was snapped up by a German record label. The 38-year-old, known for her impulsive, physical conducting style, is currently music director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia.
And she is one of a growing number of ambitious women gracing the world’s podiums.
Only a decade ago, examples of female conductors were few and far between, with a few notable exceptions: Australian Simone Young, then general music director of the Hamburg State Opera; and American Marin Alsop, then head of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.