About Marin Alsop

Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice on the international music scene, a music director of vision and distinction who passionately believes that music has the power to change lives. Alsop took up the post of principal conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in 2012 and became music director in July 2013. She continues to steer the orchestra in its artistic and creative programming, recording ventures and in its education and outreach activities. Alsop led the orchestra on a European tour in 2012, with acclaimed performances at the BBC Proms in London and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Born in New York City, Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Her conducting career was launched when, in 1989, she was a prizewinner at the Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition and in the same year was the first woman to be awarded the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein.

About the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra

Since its first concert in 1954, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP) has developed into an institution recognized for its excellence. Having released more than 60 recordings, the orchestra has become an inseparable part of São Paulo and Brazilian culture, promoting deep cultural and social transformation. Besides touring through Latin America, the United States, Europe and Brazil, since 2008 the group has toured widely throughout the São Paulo countryside, promoting concerts, workshops, and courses in music appreciation for over 250,000 people. In 2012 the American Marin Alsop took the post of Principal Conductor, with Brazilian Celso Antunes as Associate Conductor. In 2013 Marin Alsop was appointed as musical director of OSESP and the orchestra took part in its fourth European tour, performing for the first time, and to great acclaim, at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, at the Berliner Philharmonie, home of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and at the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre, one of the leading arts centres in London. In 2014, commemorating its 60th anniversary year, it played the Latin-American première of a co-commissioned Saxophone Concerto by John Adams.