Breaking down another set of barriers in the stuffy world of classical music and the so-called high arts, Alondra De La Parra has been named the first woman music director of Australia’s Queensland Symphony Orchestra. The 32-year-old Mexican was born in New York, but grew up in Mexico City where she still lives. She studied conducting at the Manhattan School of Music. 

De la Parra’s appointment makes a trio of women in leadership roles at the QSO. Sophie Galaise, a Canadian orchestra manager, joined the QSO as chief executive two years ago and has helped revive its fortunes. And in June, the orchestra named Natalia Raspopova as its assistant conductor. Galaise says it was never the orchestra’s intention to have a female music director, but she is delighted it worked out that way. “We wanted someone who would really complement the orchestra and I think we have found that person with Alondra,” she says. “She was the strongest candidate by far.”

De La Parra will open the QSO’s 2016 season with Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.