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Marin Alsop, conductor

Biography

"In an era when great Brahms interpreters are a bit thin on the ground, Alsop is well on her way to becoming one of the best". (London Philharmonic/Royal Festival Hall, January 2000)." Whether conducting the Brahms Requiem with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on authentic instruments, bringing fresh insights to the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Shostakovich and Mahler, or championing American composers such as Corigliano and Rouse around the world, Alsop’s rare talent for communication, her passionate sense of discovery, and her clear, fluid technique have won her respect and admiration on both sides of the Atlantic.

Newly appointed Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Britain from the 2002/2003 season, Alsop’s contract will run for an initial 4 years. She will conduct up to 12 weeks per season, including national and international tours and recordings.

Music Director of the Colorado Symphony since 1993, where her innovative programming has won several national awards, Alsop will stay on there as Music Director Laureate for 2 more years. Her reputation in North America has been secured also through her high-profile guest appearances with orchestras such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony (Washington), Minnesota Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Atlanta, Houston, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, a two-year position as "Creative Conductor Chair" with the St Louis Symphony, and her very successful Music Directorship at the Cabrillo Festival of contemporary music. Her debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1999 in their Copland Festival at the Lincoln Center was described by the New York Times as "supple, vibrant, ..an impassioned performance", and she will return to the orchestra in 2003. In 2000 she conducted her first production of La Traviata, and in 2004 she conducts Nixon in China.

Her guesting in Europe has produced re-invitations from orchestras such as the London Symphony – whose Walton anniversary concert she conducted in the Barbican Centre this year, and who immediately invited her back for concerts at the beginning and end of their centenary celebrations; London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Orchestre de Paris, to name but a few. The Bavarian Radio Symphony chose her to share a concert with Lorin Maazel, other recent German appearances include the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Hamburg Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Stuttgart Radio, and she conducts the Komische Oper in Berlin in 2002. Special chamber orchestra projects have included an opera triple bill with the City of London Sinfonia – which led to their appointing her Principal Guest Conductor, and a similar project in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Chamber (filmed for Dutch television); and a concert in the Vienna Musikverein of a contemporary score with a film of Joan of Arc. Other recent and upcoming guest appearances include: Sydney Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse, and Orchestre National de Lyon.

As Principal Guest with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra since 1999 she has had huge success with the first instalments of her complete Barber orchestral cycle on Naxos, the first disc of which was nominated for a Gramophone Award and a Classical Brit Award. In Summer 2002 Naxos released a recording of Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony with the Colorado Symphony, which has had excellent reviews internationally. Other recordings include works by Christopher Rouse for Koch with Concordia and for RCA Red Seal with the Colorado Symphony, "Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman" by Joan Tower with the same orchestra on Koch, the first recording of Gershwin’s youthful opera Blue Monday with Concordia, and the cover disc of the BBC Music Magazine (Saint-Saens Organ Symphony and Piano Concerto no.2) with the BBC Philharmonic.

Marin Alsop is a native of New York City, attended Yale University, and received her Master's Degree from the Juilliard School. In 1989 she won the coveted Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Gustav Meier. The same year she was a prizewinner at the Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition in New York.

Marin Alsop appears by arrangement with Intermusica Artists’ Management Ltd.

September 2002, 765 words.

Not to be altered or shortened without permission of Intermusica, tel: +44 20 7278 5455, fax: +44 20 7278 8434, email: smcleod@intermusica.co.uk