Marin Alsop's Path to the Podium

By Catherine Case

A young Marin Alsop raises her arms wide, signaling the orchestra’s sustained final chord. She brings her hands in and around for the cutoff. While her arms are still outstretched in the lingering resonance, an overjoyed Leonard Bernstein rushes the podium, enfolding her in a bear hug while the orchestra applauds. In this moment, captured on grainy black-and-white film during a rehearsal at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1989 and included in the 2021 documentary about Alsop’s career, The Conductor, her talent is undeniable and her path forward feels inevitable.  

For Alsop, who conducts the Seattle Symphony in a Shakespeare-inspired program that includes Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, making music is a transformative endeavor. She has described it as being “about the unspoken beauty of what we can have when we connect as human beings. It’s about hope for the planet; it’s about hope for humanity, for kindness.” Her steadfast commitment to the idea that music can change lives manifests in her advocacy work, from her support of young female conductors to her creation of an afterschool program that provides children with equitable access to music education. Through her own life as an internationally renowned conductor, she has helped shift the cultural landscape to better resemble the world she envisions; one of greater acceptance, generosity and connection.  

Alsop has broken countless barriers on her way to the top. Her list of firsts is staggering. As a woman, she was the first music director of a major American orchestra (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, 2007–2021) and a Brazilian orchestra (São Paulo Symphony, 2012–2019), the first principal conductor of a British orchestra (Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, 2002–2008), and the first chief conductor of a Viennese orchestra (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, 2019–present). She is also the first woman to conduct the acclaimed Last Night of the Proms in London. These accomplishments are all the more striking given the fact that less than 10 percent of conducting posts are held by women, according to data from the League of American Orchestras. In 2023, it is still more likely that a woman could become a head of state or a four-star officer in the U.S. military than a conductor of a major American orchestra.  

Her role as a communicator stands out above all else, however. On the podium, she effortlessly conveys the large-scale structures of the music at hand and the narratives within every score. She sees herself primarily as the composer’s messenger, creating space for audiences to react and connect emotionally. During a 2022 interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition, she noted that “the beauty of music is that it can reach each person’s heart in a completely different way … It’s bipartisan. It has no judgement. It has no definite answer because it’s all about possibility.” 

Off the podium, she devotes countless hours to teaching, mentoring and serving as a classical music ambassador. She founded the Taki Alsop Fellowship over 20 years ago to mentor and support women conductors at the start of their professional careers. She created OrchKids at the beginning of her tenure in Baltimore, and the organization now reaches hundreds of children around the city, providing students with music lessons, instruments and other resources at no cost. In The Conductor, Alsop gave filmmakers unprecedented access to her life, offering audiences an intimate glimpse into the pace and lifestyle of a world-class artist while delving into issues of discrimination and gender. Unseen Films called it “a glorious portrait of a woman you’ll want to hang out with and talk to for hours.” 

The first time she witnessed Leonard Bernstein conduct, at one of his legendary Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic when she was 9 years old, was momentous: he was jumping around and “kind of crazy. I turned to my dad that day and said, ‘That’s what I want to do, I want to be a conductor.’”  

Alsop also credits her parents as major influences in her becoming a conductor. Both were professional musicians who played with the New York City Ballet Orchestra — her father as concertmaster and her mother as a cellist. When her violin teacher told her she couldn’t be a conductor because “girls don’t do that,” Alsop was devastated. Her parents were outraged and immediately gifted her with a wooden box full of conducting batons.  

Facing a world that was not yet ready to accept women as orchestral leaders, Alsop attended The Juilliard School as a violinist. When the constraints of a classical music education began to feel too rigid, Alsop formed an all-woman string swing band called String Fever. Together they learned how to play jazz and swing music. Their success led to residencies at New York City jazz clubs and recordings with Billy Joel and Paul Simon. She was already accustomed to creating her own opportunities and had faced so much rejection around her dreams of conducting that Alsop also decided to lead her own classical ensemble. With the help of Tomio Taki, a businessman and fan of String Fever, she established the Concordia Orchestra, conducting the group for 18 years and gaining experience on the podium despite traditional pathways to success being closed to her.  

Alsop finally got to meet Leonard Bernstein when she became his student and protégée as a young adult. “He took me under his wing and imparted to me the heart and soul of the craft.” Meeting her hero exceeded all her expectations. “He was generous, demanding, validating, challenging and, above all, very loving.”  

Bernstein was no stranger to breaking barriers. His insistence on toppling the boundaries between classical and popular music caused controversy during his lifetime, but his brilliance as a composer who defied stylistic categories is universally recognized today. Bernstein’s genius is perhaps most celebrated in the enduring success of his iconic musical from 1957, West Side Story. In it, he captures the complexity and tension between rival gangs in New York City with music that blends jazz, Latin rhythms and symphonic grandeur.  

Alsop spoke about this beloved work in a 2014 interview with Carnegie Hall: “I think the themes and the moral of West Side Story are what really resonate with us, even today: the themes of youth and independence, wanting to be your own person, making your own decisions, but being hampered by conflict and prejudice ... I think in the end, the moral of allowing love to prevail is one that is a great lesson for all humankind.”   

Marin Alsop’s performances are generously sponsored by Marco Argenti and Dorothy Li.