Marin Alsop

Music Director/Conductor and featured soloist in Philip Glass/Robert Malasch's "The Photographer"

Whether championing American composers such as Corigliano and Rouse around the world, conducting the Brahms Requiem with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on authentic instruments, or bringing fresh insights to the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Shostakovich and Mahler, Alsop’s rare talent for communication, her passionate sense of discovery, and her clear, fluid technique have won her respect and admiration on both sides of the Atlantic.

Music Director of the Colorado Symphony since 1993, where her innovative programming has won several national awards, Alsop’s reputation in North America has been secured also through her high-profile guest appearances with orchestras such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony (Washington), Minnesota Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Atlanta, Houston, Cincinatti and Indianapolis, a two-year position as Creative Conductor Chair with the St. Louis Symphony, and her very successful Music Directorship at Cabrillo Music Festival since 1992. Her debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1999 in their Copland Festival at the Lincoln Center was described by the New York Times as "supple, vibrant,..an impassioned performance", and she will return to the orchestra for subscription concerts. In 2000 she conducted her first production of La Traviata, and in 2003 she makes her debut with English National Opera, conducting Rigoletto.

In the past 3 years Alsop has taken Europe by storm, so much so, that in June 2001 she was announced as the next Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, starting 2002/3, for an initial 4 years. She will conduct up to 12 weeks per season, including national and international tours and recordings.

Her guesting in Europe has also produced re-invitations from orchestras such as the London Symphony — who have also invited her to their Summer residency in Daytona (Florida); London Philharmonic, with whom she will also tour abroad, and Orchestre de Paris, to name but a few. The Bavarian Radio Symphony chose her to share a concert with Lorin Maazel, this season’s German appearances include the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and the Stuttgart Radio, and next season she conducts the Komische Opera in Berlin and the Hamburg Philharmonic. Special chamber orchestra projects have included an opera triple bill with the City of London Sinfonia — which led to their appointing her Principal Guest Conductor, a similar project in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Chamber (filmed for Dutch television); and a concert in the Vienna Musikverein of a contemporary score with a film of Joan of Arc. Guest appearances in the past year or so have included: City of Birmingham Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Toulouse Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Philharmonic. She has also visited Australia to work with, among others, the Sydney Symphony.

As Principal Guest with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra since 1999, she has embarked upon a complete Barber orchestral cycle on Naxos, the first disc of which was nominated for a Gramophone Award and a Classical Brit Award. Other recordings include works by Christopher Rouse for Koch with Concordia and for RCA Red Seal with the Colorado Symphony, Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman by Joan Tower with the same orchestra on Koch, the first recording of Gershwin’s youthful opera Blue Monday with Concordia, and the cover disc of the BBC Music Magazine (Saint-Saens Organ Symphony and Piano Concerto No. 2) with the BBC Philharmonic.

Marin Alsop is a native of New York City, attended Yale University, and received her Master's Degree from the Juilliard School. In 1989 she won the coveted Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Gustav Meier. The same year she was a prizewinner at the Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition in New York. Alsop continues to mount challenging projects at the Lincoln Center with her contemporary/jazz orchestra Concordia. She is a violinist by training, and in her spare moments plays jazz violin in her group String Fever. She is featured soloist this year at the Festival in Philip Glass’ "The Photographer."