Alondra de la Parra is a Mexican American conductor and the current Music Director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the first female principal conductor of an Australian symphony orchestra. De la Parra is also an official Cultural Ambassador of Mexico. She began playing the piano at age 7 and the cello at 13. After she studied in England and the United States - with mentors such Kurt Masur and Kenneth Kiesler, she founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA) at age 23 in 2004. show more