In Wednesday’s (7/6) Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein profiles 30-year-old Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra, “who will make her Grant Park Music Festival debut this weekend, leading the Grant Park Orchestra at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. … De la Parra would prefer leaving it to others whether she is in fact a role model for young women who are considering a career in conducting, although, when prompted she said, ‘Absolutely I want to inspire young women who aspire to become musicians and conductors.’ … In 2004 she formed the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, a New York-based ensemble made up mostly of professional instrumentalists 35 and under that specialized in Latin-American repertory. … Last month the orchestra’s board voted to suspend operations next season, citing the uncertainties of fundraising in today’s feeble economy,” but not before de la Parra took the orchestra on a tour of Mexico celebrating the country’s bicentennial. “One of the works she introduced during that tour was Mexican composer Arturo Marquez’s ‘Leyenda de Miliano’ (‘Legend of Emiliano’), a portrait in sound of the revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata, who was assassinated by government sympathizers in 1919 … The vividly energetic piece will receive its U.S. premiere at her weekend Grant Park concerts, sharing the bill with Joaquin Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ and Antonin Dvorák’s Seventh Symphony.”
Posted July 7, 2011
