Marin Alsop conducts the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She will step down next month after 14 years as music director.
“When Marin Alsop steps down at the end of August … as the first woman to lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra … she will leave a gap more profound than the space on the podium,” writes Michael Andor Brodeur in Sunday’s (5/23) Washington Post. “Her career has been an exercise in exhausting the potential of the word ‘pioneer.’ … The [BSO’s] Marin Festival is a multiweek tribute to Alsop’s legacy as a conductor and music director, but also as an advocate for education and access, a mentor for new composers and young conductors, and a force for women gaining leadership roles in classical music. The festival opens Thursday…. She’ll conduct her final concert as BSO music director as part of a live televised gala featuring Renée Fleming and the world premiere of James Lee III’s ‘Destined Worlds.’ … Alsop is the subject … of ‘The Conductor,’ a moving documentary … available for home viewing on June 15…. From the BSO, Alsop will pick up her pandemic-delayed debut as chief conductor and curator at the Ravinia festival…. She’ll also continue to teach at Peabody [and] serve as the first music director of the National Orchestral Institute and Festival.”
