Marin Alsop led the orchestra in a program of works by Beethoven, Brahms and Stravinsky, as well as a new violin concerto by Nico Muhly.

Near the end of the lullaby that gives way to the blazing finale of Stravinsky’s “Firebird” Suite, the music slows and thins to a whisper.

In the ballet, this is the moment when an evil sorcerer and his minions fall into a deep sleep. In some renditions, it registers as little more than a pause. But at David Geffen Hall on Thursday, the New York Philharmonic, under the baton of Marin Alsop, restored fairy-tale mystery to that transition.

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Conductor Marin Alsop stormed into town like a bolt of energy for her long-awaited debut performance in a San Francisco Symphony subscription series. Alsop – chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, artistic director and chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony, principal guest conductor of London’s Philharmonia and the Philadelphia Orchestra – brought electricity to a program of music of the Americas, conducting with broad gestures and a palpable connection with the musicians of this orchestra.

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By The Violin Channel. May 22,2025

The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien (RSO Wien) has unanimously selected Marin Alsop as its honorary conductor, recognizing her dedication to the orchestra throughout her six-year tenure as chief conductor.

Under Alsop’s leadership, the RSO Wien made its first appearance at the BBC Proms in 2022, plus embarked on tours to Spain, France, and Japan. Together, they have also recorded many critically acclaimed albums, including John Adams’ “City Noir,” which earned an ICMA Award and a GRAMMY nomination in 2024.

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Philharmonic Orchestra plays street music and birdsong. By Felix Stephan
At the Biennale “Paradise Lost?” the Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Marin Alsop will play new and unknown works on the subject of climate change. “Cheers at the end in the Philharmonie. Whistles of enthusiasm. And long-lasting applause for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under guest conductor Marin Alsop.” Read story here.

Marin Alsop is a pioneer among women conductors. After witnessing her inspiring leadership in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad,” with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Nov. 16, I’m convinced she is one of the great conductors of our time. Her artistry was on full display in Shostakovich’s sprawling, 75-minute symphony through raucous climaxes, emotional themes and bleak landscapes. From beginning to end, the orchestra performed with thrilling precision and power.

Marin Alsop, the orchestra’s newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor, is leading the tour. She has been affiliated with the orchestra for more than twenty years, conducting it in concerts in Philadelphia and other major American concert venues. Her rapport with the orchestra was readily evident, which undoubtedly was a factor in the orchestra’s exceptional playing in Beijing in the first two performances of the tour.

The Philadelphia Orchestra wrapped up its China tour on Sunday evening in Haikou, Hainan Province, after giving its second and final performance in the country’s southernmost capital city. From Oct. 31 to Nov. 10, the U.S. ensemble held nine concerts in Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu and Haikou as China and the United States celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year.

China veteran makes triumphal return with passionate performance in Beijing.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is set to tour through China starting on Oct. 31 through Nov. 10, 2024. The organization, which last toured China in 2019, will make stops in Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu, and Haikou throughout the trip. Leading the tour will be newly appointed Guest Conductor Marin Alsop.

At the Royal Festival Hall, the orchestra’s principal guest conductor Marin Alsop breathed life into an all-Mahler programme with a difference.

Symphonic Gustav and orchestrated songs by Alma Mahler – sung with exquisite poise by Sasha Cooke – combined in a programme conducted with warmth and care by Marin Alsop.

The multimedia elegy for the victims of the fire, Fire in my mouth, was given its first performance in 2019. In the first concert of its residency at this year’s International Festival, the Philharmonia Orchestra gave the elegy its first UK performance under the baton of its Principal Guest Conductor, Marin Alsop.

Marin Alsop is one of the world’s leading conductors and one of the few women who has made it to the upper echelons of the conducting world. Alsop shattered one of orchestra’s highest, hardest glass ceilings in 2007 at 51, when she became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra—the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a role she held for 14 years. Today, she is its music director laureate and chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Marin Alsop conducted, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet has returned as soloist, playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Thibaudet has already shown himself a superb partner for young musicians, his élan complementing their energy. Alsop’s qualities of precision and drive were also ideal, as was her own experience with the rest of this excellent program, which opened with Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1 and finished in the second half with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade—not to mention two encores that were custom-made, or close to it.

(Photo: Chris Lee)

Marin Alsop is the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms. ‘I feel certain that Henry Wood would see this evening as a natural progression towards more inclusion in classical music,’ says the American in her speech.

The musician on ditching the Harry Potter books, her love of Mrs Doubtfire and why her first musical influences were the Beatles and Leonard Bernstein.

Alsop sparked an ecstatic, pealing Allegro finale to smilingly hit that point home. Ending a tumultuous Saturday with a glimmer of — gasp — optimism? I’ll take it.

The music director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival led a program of Higdon and Beethoven, joined by the Heritage Signature Chorale.

(Image courtesy of Washington National Cathedral)

This programme, in the capable hands of Marin Alsop, makes strong cases for the pieces on offer, particularly the First Symphony which sports a Dutch hymn-like melody and confident, colourful orchestral writing.

Alsop and the ORF ensemble do these works absolute justice in these readings. Highly recommended.

Only four women conducted the Metropolitan Opera in its first 133 years ending in 2016, but now four women have taken the baton in a one-week span.

Alsop has had enviable success, and was the first female conductor to lead a top American orchestra. She wants to take another step up.

It was an evening of firsts. The trailblazing conductor Marin Alsop made her long overdue Met debut to much applause.

Alsop had Adams’ orchestrally virtuosic score locking into place at every turn.

Marin Alsop leads a performance full of humour and sparkle of the great Maestro’s operetta in Vienna.

On the heels of the new film “Maestro,” an American director will stage Leonard Bernstein’s often-reworked operetta in its “concert version.”

Marin Alsop is no stranger to Philadelphia, and now her role with the city’s orchestra will expand.

Handel with Hammond organ and hand claps. Scatting and swing. Five saxophones – this is Messiah, but not perhaps as you know it. Marin Alsop’s Gospel Messiah had its European premiere at the Royal Albert Hall on 7 December, ahead of a broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

The ease and delight with which [Alsop] managed to construct the climax — its soaring brass, racing strings, stuttering stops and scintillating finish — was a reminder of why Alsop is so beloved around these parts. Hail to the queen, indeed.

Marin Alsop speaks with Stephen Moss about leading the way for female conductors and where her career might lead next.

“Girls can’t do that,” Alsop recalls her violin teacher telling her at age nine, of becoming a conductor. “I’d never heard a phrase like that,” Alsop says.

In her years of cultural leadership, she’s been more than just an internationally renowned conduit for the intentions of history’s great composers and the sounds filling a concert hall. She’s also absorbed the hopes of young baton-holding aspirants and underserved musicians everywhere, nurturing their dreams and spreading them far and wide.

In conversation with Scott Simon on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

The first woman to lead a major American orchestra Marin Alsop talks about her tough road to the top of classical music and the new documentary about her life “The Conductor.”

CBS correspondent Mo Rocca talks with conductor Marin Alsop about Beethoven’s incredible triumph over terrible mental and physical suffering.

As Marin Alsop leaves the Baltimore Symphony after 14 years, the field is taking a step backward: 25 major American orchestras, no female music directors.

When Marin Alsop steps down at the end of August, concluding a Quite Literally Historic 14-year tenure as the first woman to lead the Baltimore Symphony.

In conversation with Michael Cooper, the classical music reporter for The New York Times.