A conductor of vision and distinction, Marin Alsop represents a powerful and inspiring voice. She is internationally recognised for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, deep commitment to education, and advocacy for music’s importance in the world.
The 2020/21 season marks Alsop’s second as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, which she leads at Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and on recordings, broadcasts and tours. As Chief Conductor and Curator of Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, she also curates and conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming summer residencies, formalizing her long relationship with Ravinia, where she made her debut with the orchestra in 2002.
In 2021, Alsop becomes Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. This concludes her 14-year tenure as Music Director, when she led the orchestra on its first European tour in 13 years, on multiple award-winning recordings and in more than two dozen world premieres, besides founding OrchKids, its successful music education program for the city’s most disadvantaged youth. In 2019, after seven years as Music Director, Alsop became Conductor of Honour of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP).
Throughout 2020, Alsop helms a global project marking Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in collaboration with Carnegie Hall.
Alsop has longstanding relationships with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, and regularly guest conducts such major international ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She opens the Orchestre de Paris’ 2020/21 season, and returns to the London Symphony both at the Barbican and in their residency at the Music Academy of the West.
Recognized with multiple Gramophone Awards, Alsop’s discography includes recordings for Decca, Harmonia Mundi and Sony Classical, and acclaimed Naxos cycles of Brahms with the London Philharmonic, Dvořák with the Baltimore Symphony, and Prokofiev with the São Paulo Symphony. Committed to new music, she was Music Director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for 25 years.
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. She serves as 2020 Artist-in-Residence at Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts, is Director of Graduate Conducting at the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute and holds Honorary Doctorates from Yale University and the Juilliard School. To promote and nurture the careers of her fellow female conductors, in 2002 she founded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship.
