Edinburgh Guide
August 22, 2024Review: EIF24, Fire in my mouth
The multimedia elegy for the victims of the fire, Fire in my mouth, was given its first performance in 2019. In the first concert of its residency at this year’s International Festival, the Philharmonia Orchestra gave the elegy its first UK performance under the baton of its Principal Guest Conductor, Marin Alsop.
Forbes
Forbes: 50 Over 50
Marin Alsop is one of the world’s leading conductors and one of the few women who has made it to the upper echelons of the conducting world. Alsop shattered one of orchestra’s highest, hardest glass ceilings in 2007 at 51, when she became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra—the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a role she held for 14 years. Today, she is its music director laureate and chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
New York Classical Review
August 6, 2024Review: NYO-USA brings it all home with assist from Thibaudet
Marin Alsop conducted, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet has returned as soloist, playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Thibaudet has already shown himself a superb partner for young musicians, his élan complementing their energy. Alsop’s qualities of precision and drive were also ideal, as was her own experience with the rest of this excellent program, which opened with Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1 and finished in the second half with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade—not to mention two encores that were custom-made, or close to it.
(Photo: Chris Lee)
Classical Music: BBC Music Magazine
July 17, 2024100 Unforgettable BBC Proms
Marin Alsop is the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms. ‘I feel certain that Henry Wood would see this evening as a natural progression towards more inclusion in classical music,’ says the American in her speech.
The Times UK
July 15, 2024Conductor Marin Alsop: I wasted an evening watching Tár
The musician on ditching the Harry Potter books, her love of Mrs Doubtfire and why her first musical influences were the Beatles and Leonard Bernstein.
Chicago Tribune
July 14, 2024Review: CSO and conductor Marin Alsop open Ravinia residency with South African exchange
Alsop sparked an ecstatic, pealing Allegro finale to smilingly hit that point home. Ending a tumultuous Saturday with a glimmer of — gasp — optimism? I’ll take it.
Washington Post
July 1, 2024At Washington National Cathedral, Marin Alsop delivers a propulsive Ninth
The music director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival led a program of Higdon and Beethoven, joined by the Heritage Signature Chorale.
(Image courtesy of Washington National Cathedral)
Classical CD Choice
July 9, 2024Review: Margaret Brouwer – Rhapsodies – Marin Alsop
This programme, in the capable hands of Marin Alsop, makes strong cases for the pieces on offer, particularly the First Symphony which sports a Dutch hymn-like melody and confident, colourful orchestral writing.
The Classic Review
June 25, 2024Review: Margaret Brouwer – Rhapsodies – Marin Alsop
Alsop and the ORF ensemble do these works absolute justice in these readings. Highly recommended.
AP News
May 7, 2024Met Opera hosts 4 female conductors in landmark week. From its founding to 2016, there were only 4
Only four women conducted the Metropolitan Opera in its first 133 years ending in 2016, but now four women have taken the baton in a one-week span.
The New York Times
May 6, 2024Can Marin Alsop Shatter Another Glass Ceiling?
Alsop has had enviable success, and was the first female conductor to lead a top American orchestra. She wants to take another step up.
The New York Times
April 24, 2024Review: John Adams’s ‘El Niño’ Arrives at the Met in Lush Glory
It was an evening of firsts. The trailblazing conductor Marin Alsop made her long overdue Met debut to much applause.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
April 24, 2024Review: Marin Alsop, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s new principal guest conductor, makes her Met debut
Alsop had Adams’ orchestrally virtuosic score locking into place at every turn.
Opera Now
January 23, 2024Review: “Candide” at MusikTheater an der Wien
Marin Alsop leads a performance full of humour and sparkle of the great Maestro’s operetta in Vienna.
The New York Times
December 23, 2023The Adventures of ‘Candide’ Continue in Vienna
On the heels of the new film “Maestro,” an American director will stage Leonard Bernstein’s often-reworked operetta in its “concert version.”
Conductor Marin Alsop and the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra show the enormous multifaceted nature of Bernstein’s funny, parodic and also voluptuous music.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
January 9, 2024Philadelphia Orchestra names a new conductor
Marin Alsop is no stranger to Philadelphia, and now her role with the city’s orchestra will expand.
The Guardian
December 12, 2023Hallelujah! The Gospel Messiah comes to the UK – a photo and audio essay
Handel with Hammond organ and hand claps. Scatting and swing. Five saxophones – this is Messiah, but not perhaps as you know it. Marin Alsop’s Gospel Messiah had its European premiere at the Royal Albert Hall on 7 December, ahead of a broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Gazeta Wyborcza
November 27, 2023Review: “Black Mask” by Krzysztof Penderecki at NOSPR
The Washington Post
November 9, 2023Review: Choral Arts and Marin Alsop throw a ‘Festival of Voices’ fit for a king
The ease and delight with which [Alsop] managed to construct the climax — its soaring brass, racing strings, stuttering stops and scintillating finish — was a reminder of why Alsop is so beloved around these parts. Hail to the queen, indeed.
BBC Music
November 1, 2022Marin Alsop on the Cover of BBC Music Magazine
Marin Alsop speaks with Stephen Moss about leading the way for female conductors and where her career might lead next.
NPR
April 4, 2022Marin Alsop in Conversation with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross
“Girls can’t do that,” Alsop recalls her violin teacher telling her at age nine, of becoming a conductor. “I’d never heard a phrase like that,” Alsop says.
Los Angeles Times
February 3, 2022Review: Marin Alsop is an admirable agent for change in the documentary ‘The Conductor’
In her years of cultural leadership, she’s been more than just an internationally renowned conduit for the intentions of history’s great composers and the sounds filling a concert hall. She’s also absorbed the hopes of young baton-holding aspirants and underserved musicians everywhere, nurturing their dreams and spreading them far and wide.
NPR
January 29, 2022Renowned conductor Marin Alsop’s life explored in new documentary
In conversation with Scott Simon on NPR’s Weekend Edition.
CNN
January 24, 2022Christine Amanpour interviews Marin Alsop
The first woman to lead a major American orchestra Marin Alsop talks about her tough road to the top of classical music and the new documentary about her life “The Conductor.”
CBS Sunday Morning
December 26, 2021Beethoven’s Ninth: The coda to an epic life in music
CBS correspondent Mo Rocca talks with conductor Marin Alsop about Beethoven’s incredible triumph over terrible mental and physical suffering.
The New York Times
June 11, 2021A Trailblazing Female Conductor Is Still Alone on the Trail
As Marin Alsop leaves the Baltimore Symphony after 14 years, the field is taking a step backward: 25 major American orchestras, no female music directors.
The Washington Post
May 19, 2021If conductor Marin Alsop’s done it, it’s probably because someone told her she couldn’t
When Marin Alsop steps down at the end of August, concluding a Quite Literally Historic 14-year tenure as the first woman to lead the Baltimore Symphony.
The New York Times
June 17, 2019Marin Alsop raises the baton for Women Conductors
In conversation with Michael Cooper, the classical music reporter for The New York Times.
“If anyone has the courage and power to change the world through music, it’s Marin Alsop.”
“… a formidable musician and a powerful communicator, a conductor with a vision of what an American Orchestra could be in the 21st Century.”
“Alsop has again packed the houses, and made her orchestra play like there was no tomorrow.”
“There is no doubt that Alsop has the goods: a compelling vision of how she wants a piece of music to sound and the ability to draw that sound from a group of players.”
“What she has done for audiences can’t be measured.”
“With Alsop and the Baltimore players, the effect was one of total revelation.”