Biography
One of the foremost conductors of our time, Marin Alsop represents a powerful and inspiring voice. The first woman to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria, and Britain, she is internationally recognized for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, her deep commitment to education, and her championing of music’s importance in the world.
Alsop serves as chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and as chief conductor of Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, where she curates and conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer residencies. She is also the first music director of the University of Maryland’s National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F); conductor of honour of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP); and music director laureate and OrchKids founder at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which followed her outstanding 14-year tenure as its music director. This fall she inaugurates a three-season appointment as principal guest conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra.
A regular guest of such major ensembles as The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris, Alsop enjoys longstanding relationships with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras, and has led Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and others. As an ardent champion of new composition, she was music director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for 25 years.
Recognized with BBC Music Album of the Year and Emmy nominations in addition to Grammy, Classical BRIT, and Gramophone Awards, Alsop’s discography comprises more than 200 titles. These include recordings for Decca, Harmonia Mundi, and Sony Classical, as well as her acclaimed Naxos cycles of works by Brahms, Dvořák, and Prokofiev. The first and only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, Alsop has also been honored with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, and made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. To promote and nurture the careers of her fellow female conductors, in 2002 she founded the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, now renamed the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. The Conductor, an award-winning documentary about her life, made its debut at New York’s 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.