‘Musica Maestra’: Successful Facebook show now on TV
October 12, 2017
In a video diary, Alondra de la Parra documents her global travels and diverse encounters with international musicians. 36-year-old de la Parra meets with renowned artists like Jan Lisiecki, Gautier Capucon or Zhang Zuo (“Zee Zee”) and offers viewers extraordinary insights into their lives. Clips from music sessions between de la Parra and her protagonists, along with concert recordings, interviews as well as brief takes from behind the scenes, enhance the videos.
With the Brazilian musicians Yamandu Costa and Ernesto Fagundes, the conductor does a bit of improvisation on a hotel balcony in Monaco. Swedish percussionists Johan Bridger and Patrick Raab show her how to play the Marimba while backstage in Stockholm. In Paris, de la Parra cooks with the Mexican-Venezuelan ensemble Recoveco, and she accompanies the Mexican singer and Grammy winner Natalia Lafourcade to a performance in front of 40,000 fans in the Mexican city of Querétaro.
Twelve of a total of 26 web videos from “Musica Maestra” have already appeared on Facebook in both Spanish and English since July. Numerous users have praised the multimedia format, the videos in the series has received up to 430,000 views and has been shared up to 5,000 times. The TV format is being produced by Bernhard Fleischer Moving Images (BFMI), the same agency that produced the web videos.
When the series kicked off, de la Parra said: “I want to share my experiences with an audience. Music is the one language that everyone can understand and love. Deutsche Welle is a fabulous platform to reach those who like to be carried away by music.”
“Musica Maestra” offers Deutsche Welle another chance to present classical music in a contemporary format to the public.
Alondra de la Parra has gained widespread attention for her international performances and her commitment to promote Latin American composers. She frequently works with some of the world's most prestigious orchestras including including Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. In 2017 she started her term as general music director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first ever music director of an Australian orchestra.
In the 2016/17 season, she made her debut with Bamberger Symphoniker, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Further highlights were her debut at Beethovenfest Bonn and concerts with the BBC Philharmonic.
In Latin America, de la Parra works frequently with a diverse array of Mexican ensembles as well as the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires and the Orquestra Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. She has received awards and acclaim for her work with the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.
Alondra de la Parra is an official cultural ambassador of Mexico.