After 18 years with Ópera Latinoamérica (OLA), Alejandra Martí Olbrich, the organisation’s Executive Director since 2017, will step down from her role in March 2025 to take on the position of Executive Director at Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral in Chile. Expressing gratitude for her leadership, OLA’s board announced that Paulina Ricciardi, the current General Coordinator and a team member for the past eight years, will continue her work within the organisation to lead efforts for 2025.

After eight years as Executive Director of Ópera Latinoamérica, Alejandra Martí Olbrich will leave her position on 11 March to assume the Executive Directorship of Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, a leading Chilean cultural institution based in Santiago. Having been involved with OLA since its founding in 2007, she has led the largest Ibero-American organisation of opera theatres, festivals, and companies through a period of consolidation since 2017, growing its membership to over 45 institutions across 13 countries, all committed to fostering networking and strengthening management through innovation.

Carmen Gloria Larenas, President of the Board of Ópera Latinoamérica and General Director of Teatro Municipal de Santiago, stated: “I would like to thank Alejandra Martí for her 18 years as part of this organisation, particularly her tenure as Executive Director. Her innovative vision and ability to connect people and organisations have left a lasting impact on OLA. I wish her all the best in this new chapter.”

The OLA Board, which also includes Andrea Caruso (Theatro Municipal de Sao Paulo), Gerardo Grieco (Teatro Colón), Isamay Benavente (Teatro de la Zarzuela), Flávia Furtado (Festival Amazonas de Ópera), Malena Muyala (Teatro Solís), Ramiro Osorio (Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo), Marcelo Lombardero (Compañía Nacional de Ópera y Estudio Ópera de Bellas Artes), Ignacio García-Belenguer (Teatro Real), and Andrés Rodríguez (Teatro Colón), confirmed that Paulina Ricciardi, currently General Coordinator of Ópera Latinoamérica and a team member for the past eight years, will continue in the organisation to oversee efforts for 2025. Throughout this year, the board will design a process to find the next leader of OLA in alignment with the institution’s strategic objectives.

“It has been an honour for me to lead OLA as Executive Director over these eight years and to have had the opportunity to work alongside remarkable individuals: the directors of the member organisations and their teams. Professionals who have collaborated in OLA’s conferences and other projects, and dozens of Latin American artists. I had the chance to learn from the richness, diversity, and unique talent of our region, and I hope I have contributed to projecting it through our work: music and the performing arts. I have no doubt that OLA’s board and team will continue to build upon what we have established as a network,” said Alejandra Martí.

Photo: Patricio Cortés.

Alejandra Martí and Her Eight Years Leading OLA

Of Chilean-Spanish nationality, Alejandra Martí holds a degree in Humanities, a postgraduate qualification in Business Management from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from ESE Business School (Universidad de los Andes, Chile). Between 2019 and 2022, she served as National Cultural Advisor for the Ministry of Culture and Arts of the Government of Chile, and between 2022 and 2024, she was a board member of Teatro Municipal de Las Condes. In 2024, she was nominated for the Latin American Leaders Awards 2024, granted by The Global School for Social Leaders, an NGO based in Vienna and Berlin.

She began her career in performing arts management at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 2004. Upon returning to Chile, she worked at Teatro Municipal de Santiago between 2006 and 2017 as Director of Institutional Development. Since 2007, when Ópera Latinoamérica was founded, Alejandra Martí Olbrich has been part of the organisation’s team. In 2017, she became OLA’s first Executive Director after the institution was legally established in Chile. Under her leadership, OLA solidified its position as the leading Ibero-American network of opera theatres, festivals, and companies, with over 45 members across 13 countries, providing Ibero-America with a voice in global conversations and trends in music and the performing arts.

She fostered networking and cooperation through various initiatives. The Annual Conferences became a platform for collaboration among network members, facilitating the circulation and co-production of performances and the development of joint projects, while also serving as a space for in-depth reflection on the role of theatres in the contemporary context. During this period, committees were established in different areas of theatre management to enable teams to share expertise and best practices. Additionally, forums such as the Women’s Forum and the Ballet Forum were created to promote female leadership and dance, respectively.

She strengthened relationships with Ópera Europa and OPERA America, collaborating on the organisation of the World Opera Forum, among other initiatives. She developed a strong partnership with Ópera XXI, a Spanish network with which she promoted the Encuentro de Teatros Iberoamericanos and the award for Best Latin American Production. She also forged connections with the World Association for Performing Arts (WAPA), founded in Beijing, China, and established links with key institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank, CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, RESEO, and FEDORA Platform, among others.

Another defining feature of her tenure was the promotion of innovation in management through new technologies. This was a key topic in numerous forums and conferences, providing OLA members with new tools and perspectives. In 2017, she co-founded Escena Digital alongside Paulina Ricciardi, the first international digital marketplace for promoting previously premiered classical productions, encouraging circulation among theatres and creating a secondary market. She also lead the implementation of XR Stage in Chile—a 3D immersive visualisation platform for stage production design developed by the Finnish National Opera and Ballet—as a pilot for the potential adoption of this technology in other countries.

During this period, she also focused on communicating and preserving Ibero-American operatic repertoire and heritage. The partnership with CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean led to the creation of the Explora Iberoamérica section on OLA’s website and social media, providing a platform to highlight the works of Latin American composers and the history of different Ibero-American theatres within the network. She also established an alliance with the Spanish magazine Ópera Actual, which has highlighted the richness and diversity of Latin American performing arts through the La ópera en el mundo section and a bimonthly opinion column.