Marin Alsop

Last updated 12/27/2015 

Music Director; Principal Conductor. First artist to win Gramophone Magazine's Artist of the Year Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society's Conductor Award in the same season. Became Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2007, the first woman to head a major American orchestra. Awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005 and is the only conductor to ever receive the award. Passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives.” She is recognised across the world for her innovative approach to programming and for her deep commitment to education and to the development of audiences of all ages. Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. Her success was recognised when, in 2013, her tenure was extended to the 2020–2021 season. Alsop took up the post of principal conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in 2012, and became music director in July 2013. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as the principal conductor from 2002 to 2008. In the summer of 2013, she served her 22nd season as music director of the acclaimed Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California. Alsop is recently appointed Director of Graduate Conducting at The Peabody Institution of Johns Hopkins University. In September 2013, she made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms in London.