Alejandra is the 2020 recipient of the Mahler Award given by the Mahler Society of Mexico, which has been also granted to Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink and Gustavo Dudamel, among others.
In 2021 she has been chosen finalist of the Only Stage International Conducting Competition (UK) and of the Lanyi Conducting Competition 2021 (Serbia) and will also make her debut with the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland.
Alejandra Urrutia is Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Teatro Municipal de Santiago – National Opera of Chile. She was Music Director of the Chilean Chamber Orchestra and, previously, the Provincial Symphony Orchestra of Santa Fe, Argentina, for three years. She is also the Artistic and Music Director of the Portillo International Music Festival – Academy and the Grand Concert for Brotherhood (Gran Concierto por la Hermandad). She is Resident Conductor of the Orchestra of the Americas.
Since 2017 she has been assistant conductor to Maestro Ivan Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin.
In January 2019 after many years working with the youth orchestra of Curanilahue and observing the transformation that music has in the lives of young musicians, their families and the community, Alejandra launched one of the most innovative projects in Chile: the Portillo International Music Festival & Academy, an initiative for the instruction of young musicians in the majestic Andes Mountains. The Academy focuses on learning the chamber music repertoire under the guidance of international teachers, in addition to classes of leadership, coaching and hatha-yoga for promoting a holistic development of Latin America’s great talents.
As creator and conductor of the Grand Concert for Brotherhood, Alejandra brings together more than 150 instrumentalists and a citizen choir of more than 200 people every year under the motto “Music as a common territory” for this beautiful project born as a message of unity with our immigrant brothers and sisters in Chile. In January 2020, after conducting Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, “Resurrection”, Alejandra received the Mahler Award 2020 given by the Mahler Society of Mexico.
Born in Concepción, Chile, she studied with famous maestros such as Robert Spano and Hugh Wolff at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, as well as in courses with Marin Alsop, Kenneth Kiesler, Gustav Meier, Hans Graf, Larry Radcleff and Murry Sidlin. She has worked internationally as conductor, violinist and educator with a bachelor and doctorate from the University of Michigan.
Alejandra Urrutia is a Fanjul & Ward artist.