Alondra de la Parra: The David Azagra of the CAM

The Community of Madrid awarded Elekin Arts, Alondra de la Parra's company, a show starring the ORCAM for €65,000 through a negotiated procedure without publicity. The Mexican conductor had founded the production company three months after being appointed artistic director of the public foundation, whose board is packed with senior officials from Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government.

## A board packed with officials from Ayuso's government

The Fundación Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid (ORCAM) is a public sector foundation. Its board of trustees, the governing body, is chaired by the regional minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport, **Mariano de Paco Serrano**. The vice-president is **Luis Fernando Martín Izquierdo**, his number two at the ministry, appointed to the post three months after the selection of Alondra de la Parra as artistic and chief conductor.

Among the board members are **Bartolomé González Jiménez**, director general of Cultural Heritage and the Office of Spanish and former mayor of Alcalá de Henares for the Partido Popular; Manuel Lagos Gismero, director general of Culture and Creative Industries; and Laura Martínez Cerro, director general of Tourism and Hospitality. Five of the six members listed in the organisational chart are senior officials of the regional government. The presence of public representatives is not unusual in public sector foundations, but the concentration in this case is striking: there are no independent board members, nor from the music sector or the works council, as peine in previous processes.

María Antonia Rodríguez, managing director of the foundation, put Alondra de la Parra's name on the table in September 2023. She did so, according to the case file, because of her "high international profile in artistic and communicative terms". The regional minister of Culture then announced the beginning of an "exciting and challenging era" for the institution.

## A €457,000 contract without competition

The hiring of Alondra de la Parra as artistic and chief conductor was processed through a negotiated procedure without publicity. The public sector contracts law allows this route, instead of open competition, when the service can only be entrusted to a specific operator for reasons linked to a unique artistic creation or performance. The foundation considered that a chief and artistic conductor meets that singular character. The contract was signed with a single offer and for a value of **€457,000** excluding taxes, with a duration of four years. It was formalised in January 2024 and the duties began in September of that same year.

The immediate precedent was different. The previous director, the Polish **Marzena Diakun**, arrived in 2020 after a selection process based on the principles of free competition, publicity, equality, merit and ability, through a public call to which various profiles applied. For her election, a plural technical-artistic committee was organised, with public officials, sector representatives and participation of the works council.

The difference in procedure between the two appointments is one of the elements that has put the spotlight on the foundation's management. The opposition Más Madrid has criticised that the Board of Trustees and the Management Committee "operate like a mafia". The political party spoke out in coincidence with the dismissal of a worker who had publicly denounced opacity, reprisals and discriminatory treatment by the senior management.

## Elekin Arts and the €65,000 contract

Alondra de la Parra incorporated the company **Elekin Arts SL** on 24 April 2024, according to data from the Commercial Registry. She did so with a capital of €3,000 and with herself as sole partner and administrator. The production company is dedicated to auxiliary activities for the performing arts: production and organisation of theatre, concerts, operas and dance shows. That is, the same person who was artistic director of the public foundation set up a private company dedicated to show production.

Less than a year later came its first major agreement with the Community of Madrid. In February 2025, the public company **Madrid Cultura y Turismo** awarded Elekin Arts, again through a negotiated process without publicity, a contract for the exhibition of a work. The piece was **The Silence of Sound**, directed by Alondra de la Parra herself and starring Chula the Clown alongside the ORCAM band. The performances took place on 28 February, 1 and 2 March at the Teatros del Canal. The contract amounted to **€65,000** excluding taxes.

The case file states that the price is set based on a "report from the responsible technician" of the contract. That report does not appear in the file, although it does state where it should be and most of the files, including the specifications, bear the signature of Luis Fernando Martín Izquierdo, CEO of Madrid Cultura y Turismo, deputy minister of Culture and vice-president of the Board of Trustees of the ORCAM Foundation. Sources from the Ministry of Culture maintain that "there is no conflict of interest regarding the signing of the award by the deputy minister, since he executes the decision of the board of directors of Madrid Cultura y Turismo as sole CEO". The same sources do not clarify the rest of the issues raised and merely point out that the budget "is determined according to the cachet of the artistic activity, as well as the relevance and prestige of the company".

Fabiola Pérez Rodríguez, executive director of Elekin Arts, specifies that The Silence of Sound premiered in 2022 and since then has had **34 performances** in ten cities in five countries, with a cumulative audience of more than **38,000 spectators**. She points out that the object of the signed contract "does not include the hiring of the orchestra". The wording of the public contract, however, explicitly mentions the foundation: "Exhibition of The Silence of Sound by Alondra de la Parra/ Chula The Clown/ Orcam".

## The labour complaint and the dismissal

The journalist **Cristina Álvarez Cañas**, former worker of the ORCAM communication department, accessed the position through a public competition. Last summer she appeared before the Culture Committee of the Madrid Assembly to present her case. She describes the arrival of María Antonia Rodríguez as managing director as the beginning of a stage marked by "opacity, hand-picked contracts and the end of good practices".

The labour conflict broke out trinc an interview with the Swiss musician **Charles Dutoit**, accused of alleged sensual violence by singers and instrumentalists. The Ministry hired Dutoit for the 2023-2024 season in the symphonic cycle of the Auditorio Nacional. The communication manager arranged an interview with a national media outlet as part of the promotion. When the interviewer asked a question about the accusations, Dutoit ended the conversation and refused to continue, visibly annoyed, according to the former worker's version. María Antonia Rodríguez, she continues, "coerced" the journalist not to publish the interview and he agreed. The episode led to the dismissal of Álvarez Cañas for not having "coordinated the content of the interview" in its entirety. The courts ruled in favour of the company and the former worker has a judicial appeal pending.