- Marin Alsop, 67, has been appointed principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra next season.
- The first woman to conduct a top-tier orchestra in the United States, Allsop served as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2021.
- She has agreed to a three-year term with the Philadelphia Orchestra, beginning with a tour of China in 2024 and conducting for several weeks each season.
Marin Alsop will replace Natalie Stutzmann as principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra next season.
Alsop, 67, served as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 2007-2008 to 2020-21, becoming the first woman to conduct a top-level orchestra in the United States. She has agreed to a three-year term with the Philadelphia Orchestra, starting with a 2024 tour of China, the organization announced Tuesday. She conducts her 2-3 weeks each season.
Mr. Alsop made his debut with the orchestra in 1990 and conducted it 32 times. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 2012 to 2013, contacted her along with her orchestra's management team. She said the orchestra had long put aside its reputation for the heavy stringed sound developed during Eugene Ormandy's musical directorship from 1936 to 1980.
The Philadelphia Orchestra works to build bridges between the United States and China through music.
“It’s a much different animal than when I first led them,” she said. “They’re very flexible, they’re very engaged, they’re very enthusiastic;
Marin Alsop conducts the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the “We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert” on August 21, 2021 at the Great Lawn in Central Park, New York. Alsop will replace Natalie Stutzman as principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra next season. (Andy Klopa/Invision/AP, File)
She is in her fifth season as Principal Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and her first season as Principal Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonia Orchestra. She was named principal conductor of the Ravinia Festival in 2020, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Philadelphia Orchestra returns to China for Milestone Performance Tour
Alsop will make his Metropolitan Opera debut in April, leading the company's theatrical debut of John Adams' El Niño.
In 2005 she received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
