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About
Marin Alsop (born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Ravinia Festival. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008 and to the American Philosophical Society in 2020. On June 5, 2023, she was named as the artistic director and conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Early career
After failing three times to win admission to Juilliard's conducting program, Alsop founded the New York String Ensemble in 1981, the female jazz ensemble String Fever, and in 1984 Concordia, a 50-piece orchestra specializing in twentieth-century American music. In 1983 she was concertmaster in a recording session of Philip Glass's chamber opera The Photographer. In 1985, she played violin on the original Broadway cast recording of the musical Big River. She won the Koussevitzky Prize as outstanding student conductor at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1989, where she met her hero and future mentor Leonard Bernstein. She was the first woman to win the prize.
Cabrillo Festival, Colorado Symphony
Alsop was music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music from 1992 to 2016. From 1993 to 2005, she was first principal conductor and then music director of the Colorado Symphony; she was then named the orchestra's conductor laureate. Alsop also served as associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony in Richmond, Virginia, from 1988 to 1990, music director of the Eugene Symphony in Eugene, Oregon from 1989 to 1996, music director of the Long Island Philharmonic from 1990, music director of the Oregon Festival of American Music from 1992 to 1996, and Creative Conductor Chair for the St. Louis Symphony from 1994 to 1996. In 2002, she co-founded the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, now the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, for female conductors. On September 20, 2005, Alsop became the first conductor ever to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
In September 2007, Alsop was appointed the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, having been named music director designate for the 2006–2007 concert season. She was the first woman appointed to lead a major American orchestra. The appointment generated some controversy among orchestra members, who felt they had not been sufficiently consulted. Alsop successfully addressed their concerns. In June 2009, the orchestra announced the extension of her contract for another five years, through August 2015.
In July 2013, the BSO announced a further extension of her contract as music director through the 2020–2021 season. In February 2020, the orchestra announced that Alsop would conclude her music directorship of the orchestra at the close of the 2020–2021 season and take the title of music director laureate. She conducted a series of three farewell concerts in summer 2021.
Alsop's initiatives with the BSO have included the Webumentary Film Series, a free iTunes podcast titled Clueless About Classical, and the OrchKids program, directed at underprivileged Baltimore children. In August 2015, Alsop was appointed director of graduate conducting at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, succeeding one of her mentors, Gustav Meier.
Ravinia Festival
In 2020, it was announced that Alsop would become the inaugural principal conductor at the Ravinia Festival.
Outside the US
In the UK, Alsop has served as principal guest conductor with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and with the City of London Sinfonia. She was Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2008, the first female principal conductor in the orchestra's history. She was voted Gramophone magazine's Artist of the Year in 2003 and won the Royal Philharmonic Society's conductor's award in the same season.
In April 2007, Alsop was one of eight conductors of British orchestras to endorse the 10-year classical music outreach manifesto "Building on Excellence: Orchestras for the 21st Century" that called for increasing the presence of classical music in the UK, including giving all British schoolchildren free entry to a classical music concert. Alsop received an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Bournemouth University on November 7, 2007. Alsop served as an Artist-in-Residence at the Southbank Centre, London, for the 2011–2012 season. In 2013, she was the first woman to conduct at the Last Night of the Proms, she returned in 2015 and again in 2023.
In 2012, Alsop became principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), the first female principal conductor of OSESP. In July 2013, OSESP granted her the title of music director and in April 2015 extended her contract to the end of 2019. Alsop led the orchestra on a European tour, including its first appearance at the Proms in August 2012, the first Proms appearance by any Brazilian orchestra. They returned to Europe in October 2013, with concerts in Berlin, London, Paris, Salzburg and Vienna and to the Proms in August 2016. In December 2017, OSESP announced that Alsop would stand down as its music director in December 2019 and take the title of honorary conductor.
In 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2016, Alsop conducted the Belgian National Orchestra at the Queen Elisabeth Competition. On 7 September 2013, Alsop became the first female conductor of the Last Night of The Proms, and returned to conduct the Last Night on 12 September 2015. On 4 September 2014, at the Proms, she was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 2014, Alsop first guest-conducted the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra; in September 2019, she became the orchestra's first female chief conductor. Alsop was a recipient of one of the 25th Annual Crystal Awards for 2019 at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Since 2020, she has been artist in residence at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.