ALSOP, MARIN

Internationally acclaimed for her creative approach to programming and interpretation of repertoire from the mainstream to the contemporary, Marin Alsop is an inspirational music director, instilling orchestras with new dynamism and deepening their interaction with audiences and the wider community. She has enjoyed great success as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has retained strong links with all of her previous orchestras. From 2002–2008 she was principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and now holds the post of conductor emeritus, as well as being music director laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, where she was music director from 1993 to 2005. Since 1992 Alsop has been music director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, building a devoted audience for new music and playing to sold-out houses.

As a guest conductor, Marin Alsop makes regular appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. European engagements have taken her to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, Orchestre de Paris, Munich Philharmonic and La Scala Milan. She is one of the few conductors to perform every season with both the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic. At London’s Southbank Centre, she is the artistic director of The Bernstein Project which runs from September 2009 to July 2010, and which will range from Mozart with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to Bernstein’s own Mass [Naxos 8.559622–23], featuring musicians from the National Youth Orchestra and a huge cast of performers drawn from the local community. Since beginning her position in Baltimore in September 2007, Alsop has spearheaded educational initiatives which reach more than 60,000 school and pre-school students, and in 2008 launched OrchKids, an after-school program designed to provide music education, instruments and mentorship to the city’s neediest young people.

Her ability to transcend traditional barriers was exemplified by her invitation to attend the 2006 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos and by her delivery of a televised speech on the importance of arts education to the National Press Club in Washington D.C. in 2008. A regular presence in the media, she has been profiled in Time and Newsweek, appeared on NBC’s Today Show and was featured as ABC News’s ‘Person of the Week.’ Musical America’s 2009 Conductor of the Year, Marin Alsop made history in 2007 when she was appointed music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, thus becoming the first woman to head a major American orchestra. In 2003, she was the first artist to be named Gramophone’s Artist of the Year and to receive the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor’s Award in the same year, while in 2005, she became the first conductor to be conferred the USA’s prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. Among her other prizes are a European Women of Achievement Award, a Classical BRIT Award for Best Female Artist and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s BBC Radio 3 Listeners Award.

In Autumn 2008, she became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and her achievements at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music have been recognized annually with the ASCAP award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. Her extensive discography includes the Brahms symphonies with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, music by Bartók, Bernstein, Takemitsu, Weill and Orff with the Bournemouth Symphony, in addition to a series featuring American composers. A mainstay of the Naxos recording label, in 2008, Alsop launched a Dvořák symphony cycle with the Baltimore Symphony with the Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’ [Naxos 8.570714] , which immediately became an international best seller. Born in New York City, Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Marin Alsop was the first woman to be awarded the Koussevitsky Conducting Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center where she became a protégée of Leonard Bernstein.

For more information please visit her website, www.marinalsop.com.

See Marin Alsop’s Naxos interview.

Albums featuring this artist are available for download from ClassicsOnline.com
A TO Z OF CLASSICAL MUSIC (The) (3rd Expanded Edition, 2009)	8.558212-13
ADAGIO CHILLOUT	8.556783
ADAMS, J.: Nixon in China (Orth, Kanyova, Hammons, Heller, Opera Colorado Chorus, Colorado Symphony, Alsop)	8.669022-24
ADAMS: Shaker Loops / Wound Dresser / Short Ride in a Fast Machine	8.559031
AMERICAN CLASSICS SAMPLER	8.559118
AMERICAN SALUTE (AN) - SPIRIT OF THE NATION	8.559147
Artist Profile Series - VAN RAAT, Ralph	8.578026
BARBER (Eternal)	8.572133
BARBER: Capricorn Concerto / A Hand of Bridge / Canzonetta / Intermezzo	8.559135
BARBER: Cello Concerto / Medea Suite / Adagio for Strings	8.559088
BARBER: Knoxville: Summer of 1915 / Essays for Orchestra Nos. 2 and 3	8.559134
BARBER: Piano Concerto / Die Natali / Medea's Meditation	8.559133
BARBER: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 / Essay for Orchestra No. 1	8.559024
BARBER: Violin Concerto / Serenade for Strings / Souvenirs	8.559044
BARTOK: Bela Bartok - A Portrait (JOHNSON)	8.558200-01
BARTOK: Bluebeard's Castle	8.660928
BARTOK: Miraculous Mandarin (The) (Complete Ballet) / Hungarian Pictures / Dance Suite	5.110088
BARTOK: Miraculous Mandarin (The) (Complete Ballet) / Hungarian Pictures / Dance Suite	6.110088
BARTOK: Miraculous Mandarin (The) (Complete Ballet) / Hungarian Pictures / Dance Suite	8.557433
BARTOK: Wooden Prince (The)	8.570534
BERNSTEIN, L.: Mass (Sykes, Wulfman, Morgan State University Choir, Peabody Children's Chorus, Baltimore Symphony, Alsop)	8.559622-23
BERNSTEIN: Chichester Psalms / On the Waterfront	8.559177
BERNSTEIN: Serenade / Facsimile / Divertimento	8.559245
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 / Tragic Overture / Academic Festival Overture	5.110077
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 / Tragic Overture / Academic Festival Overture	6.110077
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 / Tragic Overture / Academic Festival Overture	8.557428
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2 / Hungarian Dances	8.557429
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 3 / Haydn Variations	8.557430
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4 / Hungarian Dances Nos. 2, 4-9 (orch. Breiner)	8.570233
CLASSICAL FAVOURITES (Den Klassiske Onskekonserten)	8.503129
CLASSICS GO TO WAR	8.570154-55
COPLAND, A.: Dance Symphony / Symphony No. 1 / Short Symphony (Bournemouth Symphony, Alsop)	8.559359
DAUGHERTY: Philadelphia Stories / UFO	8.559165
DISCOVER FILM MUSIC	8.558210-11
Discover Music of the Twentieth Century	8.558168-69
DISCOVER THE SYMPHONY (2008 edition)	8.558208-09
DVORAK, A.: Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" / Symphonic Variations (Alsop)	8.570714
EXPLORE AMERICA	8.559187
GLASS, P.: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3	8.559202
GLASS: Symphony No. 4, 'Heroes' / The Light	8.559325
Gramophone Awards 2000	8.555303
HARRIS: Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4	8.559227
HENLEY, D.: More Famous Composers (Alsop, USA) (Unabridged)	NA242212
HENLEY, D.: Story of Classical Music (The) (Unabridged)	NA331012
HENLEY, D: Famous Composers (Alsop, USA) (Unabridged)	NA236812
HERSCH: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 / Fracta / Arrache	8.559281
KLASSIK HIGHLIGHTS - Music for the 20th Anniversary of Naxos	8.550020
MUSIC TO DIE FOR	8.557411
NAXOS 15TH ANNIVERSARY CD	8.555964
ORFF: Carmina Burana	8.570033
PANDA CLASSICS - Issue Nos. 1-3 (3CD box set)	8.503204
PILGRIM'S PROGRESS: PIONEERS OF AMERICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC	8.559200
SONIC REBELLION - Alternative Classical Collection	8.570760
STORY OF AMERICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC (THE)	8.558164-65
STRINGS (Eternal)	8.578027
TAKEMITSU: Orchestral Works	8.557760
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 4 / Romeo and Juliet	8.555714
TORKE: Rapture / An American Abroad / Jasper	8.559167
WEILL: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 / Lady in the Dark - Symphonic Nocturne	8.557481