One of the foremost conductors of our time, Marin Alsop is the first woman to serve as the head of major orchestras in the United States, South America, Austria, and Great Britain. She is internationally recognized for her innovative approach to programming and is the first and only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.

Alsop serves as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony; Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra; and Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra. She made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Her long-awaited Berlin Philharmonic debut was in 2025. 

To nurture the careers of women conductors, Alsop founded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship in 2002 to empower extraordinary women conductors through intensive coaching, mentoring, and financial support. Today, the fellowship includes 92 award recipients and mentees and among them, 32 Music Director/Chief Conductor titles are held with orchestras around the world.

Alsop’s 2026-27 season highlights include her return to the BBC Proms with the Philharmonia Orchestra, in addition to appearances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. She also embarks on her second tour of Asia with The Philadelphia Orchestra alongside piano virtuoso Yunchan Lim and will also lead the 2027 Cincinnati May Festival. Her repertoire this season spans the symphonic canon and contemporary works while also continuing her longstanding advocacy for American composers through landmark performances of works by Mahler, Britten, Shostakovich, John Adams, and Julia Wolfe.

In 2021, Alsop assumed the title of Music Director Laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. During her 14-year tenure as Music Director, she led the orchestra on its first European tour in 13 years, conducted more than two dozen world premieres, and founded the music education program OrchKids. She is the winner of the 2025 Golden Baton Award from the League of American Orchestras.

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(August 2026)