Eugenia León got her start in the nueva canción (new song) folk music movement, which played a role in social change in Portugal, Spain, and Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, just days after an earthquake devastated her hometown of Mexico City, Ms. León earned the top prize at the OTI International Song Festival in Spain. With more than twenty-five recordings, Ms. León’s repertory ranges from contemporary composers to traditional Mexican and Latin American music. Her association with actors, poets, painters, and writers imparts a distinct and rich dimension to her music. She also incorporates elements of theater, cabaret, and opera into her performances. Ms. León has appeared in notable events around the world such as the Pan Pacific Music Festival in Japan, the Kennedy Center's AmericArtes Festival in Washington DC, Expo Seville in Spain, and the Americas Summit in Cartagena, Colombia. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut at these performances.

(October 2017)

Alondra de la Parra frequently works with many of the world’s leading orchestras including Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, São Paulo Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In 2017 she began her term as Music Director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, making her the first person to ever hold the title of Music Director with an Australian orchestra. She holds the distinction of being the first Mexican woman to conduct in New York City and is an official Cultural Ambassador of Mexico.

In the 2017-18 season she returns to the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Royal Opera House in London for a production of The Winter’s Tale, as well as a tour with Berlin Radio Symphony.

Recent highlights include her debut with Bamberg Symphony, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, as well as her subscription debut with the NHK Symphony, her debut at Beethovenfest Bonn, concerts with BBC Philharmonic, her return to Orchestre de Paris (broadcast live by German-French TV channel Arte), appearances with the Verbier Festival Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and a live orchestral performance of the film West Side Story at Mexico's Auditorio Nacional. Ms. de la Parra made her San Francisco Symphony debut in November 2009, conducting the Día de los Muertos community concert.

In July 2017, Germany’s public broadcasting service Deutsche Welle created Musica Maestra, a new classical format featuring Ms. de la Parra in a series of twenty-six web videos and six television shows.

(October 2017)