Marin Alsop

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Marin Alsop, an American conductor (b. 1956).
Marin Alsop, an American conductor (b. 1956).

Marin Alsop (born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor and violinist.

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[edit] Biography

Alsop was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, North America to professional musician parents.

Alsop attended Yale University but later transferred to the Juilliard School, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees, both in violin. She founded the string ensemble String Fever in 1981. She won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1989, where she studied under Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Gustav Meier, among others.

Alsop has been music director of the Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California since 1991. The festival specializes in contemporary music. For 12 years, she was music director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, initially starting with the title principal conductor. She is now the orchestra's conductor laureate. She has also served as music director of the Eugene Symphony in Eugene, Oregon. She was associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony in Richmond, Virginia from 1988 to 1990.

In the UK, Alsop has served as principal guest conductor with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and with the City of London Sinfonia.[1] Alsop was appointed Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in autumn 2002. 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. She is currently contracted to remain as the Bournemouth Symphony's principal conductor through 2008, at which time she is scheduled to relinquish this post. [2]

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", to increase the presence of classical music in the UK, including giving free entry to all British schoolchildren to a classical music concert.[3]

In July 2005, Alsop was named the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). This 2005 appointment made Alsop the second woman to lead a major American orchestra. Alsop became BSO's Music Director Designate in the 2006-2007 concert season, and in the 2007–2008 season, she assumed the orchestra's directorship, thus becoming its 12th music director and first female music director. Her selection is noteworthy because Alsop is the first female Music Director of one of America's top 25 orchestras. The decision to appoint Alsop was surrounded in controversy when it became apparent that some of the orchestra's members were opposed to the manner in which management handled the appointment, the fact that they were excluded from the music director search process, and the way Alsop said, "make it magical," interpreted by some to mean she lacked the technical expertise to properly instruct the orchestra. However, the orchestra and Alsop met after the announcement and smoothed over their differences. [4] [5]

On September 20, 2005, Alsop became the first conductor ever to receive the MacArthur Fellowship.

Alsop is noted for her advocacy and interpretations of American music, but is establishing her reputation in the core symphonic repertory as well. She is the first woman to record the complete cycle of symphonies by Brahms (recorded with the London Philharmonic for Naxos Records). She is also the first woman conductor to have recorded a Mahler symphony with a major orchestra - the Fifth Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra on the LSO Live label.

Alsop received an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Bournemouth University on 7 November 2007.

[edit] Orchestras conducted by Alsop

Listed alphabetically

[edit] References

  1. ^ Geoffrey Norris. "Beating time and space on the way to the top", Telegraph, 22 March 2001. Retrieved on 2008-04-19. 
  2. ^ "'I don’t need to be liked, I’d rather be respected'", The Times, 9 February 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-08. 
  3. ^ Charlotte Higgins. "Orchestras urge free concerts for children", The Guardian, 26 April 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-08. 
  4. ^ Lev Grossman. "A Symphony of Her Own", Time, 25 July 2005. Retrieved on 2007-09-07. 
  5. ^ Daniel J. Wakin. "Best Wishes on Your Job. Now Get Out.", New York Times, 9 October 2005. Retrieved on 2007-09-07. 

[edit] External links


Preceded by
Philippe Entremont (Denver Symphony)		 Music Director, Colorado Symphony Orchestra
1993-2005		 Succeeded by
Jeffrey Kahane
Preceded by
Yakov Kreizberg		 Principal Conductor, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
2002-2008		 Succeeded by
Kirill Karabits
Preceded by
Yuri Temirkanov		 Music Director, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
2007 –		 Succeeded by
incumbent


v • d • e
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Directors

Gustav Strube (1917) · George Siemonn (1930) · Ernest Schelling (1935) · Werner Janssen (1937) · Howard Barlow (1939) · Reginald Stewart (1942) · Massimo Freccia (1952) · Peter Herman Adler (1959) · Sergiu Comissiona (1969) · David Zinman (1985) · Yuri Temirkanov (1999) · Marin Alsop (2007)