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Timeline

2024

  • Makes her Metropolitan Opera debut leading the company premiere of John Adams’s El Niño 
  • Named Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra

2023

  • The Conductor nominated for an EMMY for Best Arts and Culture Documentary
  • Named Artistic Director & Chief Conductor at Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
  • Named Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra

2022

  • Awarded the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society by the Longy School
  • The Conductor released nationally on PBS Great Performances, following theatrical screenings in NYC and LA
  • NYTimes highlights RSO Wien’s recording of works by Hans Werner Henze
  • Ravinia Festival contract extended through 2025
  • Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship celebrates its 20th anniversary with announcement of six new prize winners (bringing the total to 30) and a global concert series

2021

  • The Conductor debuts at NYC’s Tribeca Film Festival
  • US release of Hindemith collection for Naxos, Alsop’s first recording as Chief Conductor of RSO Wien
  • Named “Classical Woman of the Year” by American Public Media’s Performance Today
  • Commencement speaker at Juilliard and recipient of Honorary Doctorate Degree
  • Named the 2021/22 Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence at the Aspen Institute

2020

  • The digital Global Ode to Joy is launched, celebrating the legacy of Beethoven in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture and thirty-two institutional partners.
  • Named Chief Conductor and Curator, Ravinia Festival
  • Named first Music Director of National Institute + Festival at University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

2019

  • Received Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum, Davos
  • Appointed Chief Conductor of the RSO Wien, the first woman to head a Viennese Orchestra
  • Led São Paulo Symphony Orchestra on a 5-date tour of China

2018

  • Celebrated Leonard Bernstein’s centenary with concerts around the world including Baltimore, New York, São Paulo, Israel, London, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Dublin and Chicago.
  • Bernstein box set released on Naxos
  • Received the Association of British Orchestras Award
  • Led the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on a European Tour, the orchestra’s first overseas tour in thirteen years

2017

  • Accepted title of Conductor of Honor with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra
  • Received the Ditson Conductor’s Award for the Advancement of American music

2016

  • Awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Yale University

2015

  • Appointed Director of Graduate Conducting Program at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins
  • São Paulo Symphony Orchestra Music Director contract extended through 2019
  • Awarded Harvard University’s Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award
  • Established and awarded four students the Alsop Entrepreneurship Award, an annual prize to fund innovative projects in music entrepreneurship

2014

  • Presented with Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society in recognition of her outstanding services to music
  • Led the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra on a tour of Brazil’s state capitals to mark the orchestra’s 60th anniversary
  • Received the Champion of New Music Award from the American Composers Forum
  • Took part in the Southbank Centre’s War Requiem project, conducting Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem commemorating the centenary of WWI
  • Appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs

2013

  • Led the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra on a 15-date tour of Europex
  • First woman to conduct the Last Night of the BBC Proms
  • Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director contract extended through 2021

2012

  • Made her Viennese debut with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at the Musikverein
  • Appointed Principal Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra
  • Led the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra on a European tour, with acclaimed performances at the BBC Proms in London (first Brazilian orchestra to play at the BBC Proms) and at the Concertgebouw’s Robeco Summer Concerts in Amsterdam
  • Began a Naxos recording Prokofiev Symphony cycle with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and awarded Orchestral Choice in BBC Music Magazine
  • Presented with Honorary Membership (HonRAM) of the Royal Academy of Music, London

2011

  • Became Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre for the 2011/2012 season
  • Named in the Guardian’s list of “Top 100 Women”
  • First woman in its 230-year history to conduct at Teatro alla Scala, Italy

2010

  • Wins a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition recording of Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Colin Currie
  • Brings Rusty Musicians, an outreach program for adult amateur musicians, to Baltimore

2009

  • Baltimore Symphony Orchestra tenure extended to 2015
  • Curated a season-long project celebrating Leonard Bernstein as Artistic Director of the 2009/10 Southbank Centre season
  • Recording of Bernstein’s Mass nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Album
  • Chosen as Musical America’s Conductor of the Year

2008

  • Carnegie Hall Debut (with the Baltimore Symphony)
  • Launched OrchKids
  • Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

2007

  • Inaugural concerts as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony
  • Final CD in Brahms Symphony cycle with the London Philharmonic Orchestra released on Naxos
  • Wins European Women of Achievement Award

2005

  • Awarded a MacArthur Fellowship

2004

  • Began recording a Brahms cycle for Naxos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
  • Led first major US revival of Adams’s Nixon in China with Opera Theater of St. Louis
  • Led semi-staged production of Bernstein’s Candide with the New York Philharmonic

2003

  • First artist to win both the Gramophone Magazine’s Artist of the Year award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor Award in the same year

2002

  • Began first season in Bournemouth, praised by The Times: “Alsop has…made her orchestra play like there was no tomorrow.”
  • Adds nine BBC Radio 3 broadcasts to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra schedule

2001

  • Appointed Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

2000

  • Under Marin’s programming, the Colorado Symphony wins 1st prize from ASCAP

1999

  • Appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Glasgow) and began recording the complete works of Samuel Barber in a six-CD series for Naxos

1998

  • Received Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, State of Colorado

1997

  • Received distinguished Service Award from the University of Oregon
  • Under Marin’s programming, the Colorado Symphony wins 1st prize from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)

1996

  • Accepted title of Conductor Laureate with the Eugene Symphony

1995

  • Awarded Honorary Doctorate of Letters degree by Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA

1994

  • Accepted position of Creative Conductor Chair with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

1993

  • Appointed Music Director of the Colorado Symphony (Denver)
  • Too Hot to Handel received its world premiere at the Lincoln Center with the Concordia Orchestra

1992

  • Appointed Music Director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
  • Cabrillo won the national ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music every year under Alsop’s direction

1990

  • Accompanied Leonard Bernstein to Japan as he establishes the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo
  • Debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic

1989

  • First and only woman awarded the Koussevitsky Conducting prize by the Tanglewood Music Center
  • Appointed Music Director of the Eugene Symphony Orchestra
  • Awarded the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center where she becomes a student of Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier and Seiji Ozawa
  • Appointed Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony (Richmond, Virginia)

1985

  • Began conducting studies with Harold Farberman

1984

  • Established and led as Music Director the Concordia Orchestra in New York City. Schedule included a three-concert series at the Pierpont Morgan Library and two concerts at Lincoln Center

1981

  • Established and led “String Fever,” a 10-piece string swing band

1976

  • Began freelancing as a violinist in New York City, performing with the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, Mostly Mozart, the New York Chamber Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra, as well as Broadway shows including Sweeney Todd and Showboat. Also began studio work, playing on numerous film scores, popular albums, and television commercials

1975

  • Transferred to the Juilliard School and completed a Bachelor of Music in 1977 and Master’s Degree in 1978, both in violin performance

1968

  • Entered the Masters School (age 12)

1965

  • Watched Leonard Bernstein conduct the New York Philharmonic and decided she wanted to become a conductor (age 9)

1963

  • Entered Juilliard Pre-College (age 7)

1961

  • Began violin studies (age 5)

1958

  • Began piano studies (age 2)

1956

  • Born in NYC on October 16 to professional musicians Ruth and LaMar Alsop. LaMar was concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra and Ruth was a cellist in that same orchestra