Marin Alsop returns to Royal Concertgebouw & NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestras, leads CSO at Ravinia & Philadelphia Orchestra at Bravo! Vail, & takes NYO-USA to Carnegie Hall & South America this summer

(May 2024) —Following the resounding success of her recent Metropolitan Opera debut,
MacArthur award-winning conductor Marin Alsop embarks on an intensive summer lineup of
high-profile performances on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, she returns to the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra (June 14) and Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France (June
7), leads the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra at the Hamburg International Music Festival
(May 31–June 2), concludes her first season as Music Director of the Polish National Radio
Symphony (June 20), and returns to the Edinburgh International Festival with the
Philharmonia Orchestra, of which she is Principal Guest Conductor (Aug 21). She is similarly
active in the States. As Chief Conductor of the Chicago Symphony’s annual Ravinia residency,
she conducts six CSO festival programs in repertoire ranging from Mahler, whose symphonies
figure prominently in her summer programming, to Amanda Lee Falkenberg (July 10–27). In her
new role as Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, she leads the ensemble at
its annual Pride Concert (June 25) and at Bravo! Vail (July 5 & 6). Committed to mentorship
and education, she is the first Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival,
which she conducts in Maryland and Washington, DC (June 27–30) as well as at Ravinia (July
10). This dedication to young artists also sees her conduct the National Youth Orchestra of the
United States of America (NYO-USA) at Carnegie Hall during the venue’s World Orchestra
Week (WOW!) (Aug 5), before leading the orchestra on their second South American tour
together (Aug 8–14). Completing her fifth season as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio
Symphony, her new all-Margaret Brouwer recording with the orchestra is due for release by
Naxos (June 14). As the New York Times noted earlier this month: “No one could say that Alsop
doesn’t commit in a profound way.”

European concerts with NDR, Concertgebouw Orchestra, & more

Alsop launches the summer at the Hamburg International Music Festival, leading concerts in
Hamburg, Lübeck, and Wismar with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. Bookended by
Beethoven and Prokofiev, their program features saxophonist Jess Gillam in the German
premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Saxophone Concerto (May 31–June 2). A longtime champion
of the Scottish composer’s music, Alsop is the dedicatee of his Woman of the Apocalypse; when she
led its UK premiere with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Guardian declared: “The
performance, ferocious in its precision, was exemplary.”

Alsop then returns to the podiums of two more of Europe’s foremost orchestras. Having made her
first appearance with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2006, when she became
the first woman to conduct the Dutch ensemble in a complete concert, she returns for a program
of Jessie Montgomery’s Strum for strings, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, and John Adams’s
Fearful Symmetries (June 14). As “a proven master of Adams’ style both early and late” (San
Francisco Chronicle), last month Alsop not only made her Met debut with the composer’s music,
but also featured Fearful Symmetries on a new all-Adams Naxos release that “demonstrates her
flair and feeling for his distinctive idiom” (Musical America).

With the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, Alsop conducts a related
program, this time complementing Montgomery and Bartók with Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F,
featuring eleven-time Grammy nominee Marc-André Hamelin (June 7). Before crossing the
Atlantic for a string of high-profile American engagements, she concludes her inaugural season as
Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony with an account
of Mahler’s mighty “Resurrection” Symphony, for which they will be joined by soprano Janai
Brugger, mezzo-soprano Gerhild Romberger, and both the Polish National Youth and NFM
Choirs (June 20).

Six Chicago Symphony programs at Ravinia

Alsop enjoys an exceptionally close rapport with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO),
where her “superlative music authority” (Chicago Tribune) makes her a “powerful and
communicative force on the podium” (Chicago Classical Review). As Chief Conductor of the
orchestra’s annual residency at the Ravinia Festival, she returns to Highland Park for another
summer of innovative programming that includes six festival programs with the CSO.

She kicks off the orchestra’s 88th Ravinia season with an Opening Night concert showcasing
soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and pianist Michelle Cann in an all-American evening
celebrating the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (July 12). The following
night, the conductor juxtaposes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with 21st-century works by
Ukraine’s Iryna Aleksiychuk and South African composer and cellist Abel Selaocoe, who joins
the CSO as soloist in his Four Spirits (July 13).

Marking a high point of her Ravinia residency, Alsop and the CSO dedicate an evening to Mahler’s
monumental Ninth Symphony (July 20). Known for her “masterful Mahler” (Washington Post),
Alsop regularly returns to the composer’s symphonies, three of which feature in her summer
programming. Indeed, under her auspices, Ravinia also brings together 100 young musicians from
around the world for the second National Seminario Ravinia, featuring her leadership of
Mahler’s First Symphony with the University of Maryland’s National Orchestral Institute, of
which she is the inaugural Music Director (July 10).

Alsop’s remaining CSO programs include a program of Ravel, Richard Strauss, and Chopin, with
Chopin Competition-winning pianist Hayato Sumino (July 21), followed by an evening of
Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, and Bernstein, Alsop’s former mentor, featuring Grammy-winning
violinist Augustin Hadelich (July 25).

Finally, she leads the orchestra in a space-themed evening, complete with visuals and interviews
with NASA scientists, of Holst’s The Planets and Amanda Lee Falkenberg’s The Moons (July 26),
as heard on Alsop’s acclaimed recording with the London Symphony Orchestra. The concert
forms the centerpiece of the third edition of “Breaking Barriers,” the annual mini-festival she
has founded at Ravinia, which this year celebrates women leaders of music and space. As Classical
Voice North America noted after the mini-festival’s first edition: “Summer festivals can and
should take more risks and, indeed, break barriers. That is exactly what Alsop and Ravinia
did successfully.”

Pride and Bravo! Vail with Philadelphia Orchestra

Next season marks the launch of Alsop’s most recent new appointment: a three-year tenure as
Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. By way of an upbeat, she conducts
three concerts with the ensemble this summer. The first is the orchestra’s third annual Pride
Concert, a celebratory evening of works by LGBTQ+ composers and allies (June 25), after which
Alsop leads two programs with the orchestra at Bravo! Vail, its Colorado summer home. Gilmore
Young Artist Conrad Tao joins the orchestra as piano soloist for an all-American pairing of
Gershwin and Bernstein (July 5), after which Alsop conducts Holst’s The Planets, Copland’s
Appalachian Spring Suite, and RE/Member by Indian American composer Reena Esmail,
Artist-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (July 6).

Alsop shares a long history with the Philadelphia Orchestra, having led more than 30 concerts
with the ensemble since their first appearance together in 1990. Last season, as well as leading
the orchestra’s annual Pride Concert, she stepped in for the orchestra’s music director, Yannick
Nézet-Séguin, to conduct “a viscerally thrilling performance” (Financial Times) of The Rite of
Spring at Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie Hall and South American tour with NYO-USA

Each summer, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI) brings together emerging young
instrumentalists from across the country to form the National Youth Orchestra of the United
States of America (NYO-USA). This summer, seven years after leading the orchestra’s first Latin
American tour, Alsop conducts NYO-USA both at Carnegie Hall, during the venue’s World
Orchestra Week (WOW!), and then on its first return to South America.

Bookended by Barber’s single-movement First Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov’s
Scheherazade, their Carnegie program features a centennial performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody
in Blue, with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist (Aug 5). Alsop, the pianist, and NYO-USA then take
this program on a four-city South American tour. After dates in Montevideo (Aug 8), Buenos
Aires (Aug 10), and Rio de Janeiro (Aug 12), they conclude their tour in São Paulo, where Alsop
is the São Paulo Symphony’s Conductor of Honour. In place of Barber’s symphony, the São Paulo
program will feature Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, performed side-by-side with the
young musicians of the Orquestra Acadêmica Mozarteum Brasileira (Aug 14).

Concerts in Maryland & DC with NOI+F

As the first Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F), Alsop not
only conducts the orchestra at Ravinia this summer, but also at the University of Maryland,
where NOI+F makes its home, and in Washington, DC. Both of their Maryland programs pair new
music by women from the Americas with canonical masterworks. Thus, Antrópolis by Latin
Grammy-nominee Gabriela Ortiz will be juxtaposed with Mahler’s First Symphony (June 27)
and blue cathedral by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon with Beethoven’s “Choral”
Symphony (June 29). Alsop and NOI+F reprise their interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth next day
in Washington, DC (June 30). The same iconic work inspired the “Global Ode to Joy,” the
crowd-sourced video project she spearheaded with YouTube and Google Arts & Culture to
celebrate the composer’s 250th anniversary in 2020.

Edinburgh Festival with Philharmonia Orchestra

Last fall, Alsop launched a new four-season appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of
London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, with whom, during a previous appearance, she “whipped up
the excitement right to the end” (The Times of London). To complete her summer lineup, she
and the ensemble join the National Youth Choir of Scotland at the Edinburgh International
Festival for the UK premiere of Fire in my mouth, a “gripping work [of] sobering urgency,
energy and immediacy” (Gramophone) by Pulitzer Prize laureate Julia Wolfe (Aug 21).

New Naxos recording with Vienna RSO

A prolific recording artist, Alsop’s award-winning discography already comprises more than 200
titles. She adds another on June 14, when Naxos releases Rhapsodies, an album devoted to
American composer Margaret Brouwer, whose innovative music inhabits “its own peculiarly
bewitching harmonic world” (New York Times). Recorded with Alsop’s ORF Vienna Radio
Symphony Orchestra, the new collection includes Brouwer’s Rhapsody, Concerto for Orchestra
and the world premiere recording of her First Symphony, “Lake Voices.” To buy or stream
Rhapsodies, click here.

Triumphant Metropolitan Opera debut

Alsop’s summer engagement follow her triumphant debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera,
where she led last month’s company premiere of John Adams’s opera-oratorio El Niño. The critical
response to her leadership was uniformly rapturous. “Alsop led a large ensemble with a strong
hand, skillfully navigating a score that masterfully fuses traditional and contemporary
elements,” reported Seen and Heard International. Parterre singled out her “virtuosic control of
orchestral dynamics,” through which “balance, variety and abundant detail were evident all
night long.”

The Wall Street Journal praised the way she “skillfully paced the show, whether letting the
orchestra erupt in violent minimalist oscillations or whittling it down to a single guitar.”
Noting the “hero’s welcome” she received from the audience, the UK’s Financial Times applauded
her “deep command of Adams’s music.” Selecting the production as a “Critic’s Pick,” the New
York Times observed:

“Alsop’s musical interpretation beautifully suits the production concept. … Alsop kept the
rhythm insistent but chose a slightly slow tempo, loosening the tight weave of the instrumental
parts and transforming its mechanical effect into something more organic. Woodwinds breathed,
and guitars turned hypnotic. The orchestra flourished.”

New York Classical Review agreed:

“Through the slightest variation in tempo or volume, Alsop breathed life and drama into the
music. The forces on stage were huge, including the Met Chorus and Young People’s Chorus of
New York City, as well as dancers and cast. Musically, however, Alsop maintained a steady sense
of balance and control throughout the performance . Adams integrated electronic elements in
the score, which under Alsop’s baton became a subtle element of the soundscape, and never
overpowered the singers or other instruments.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer marveled:

“The performer who received the most applause at the end was conductor Marin Alsop in
her Met debut. … This recently appointed principal guest conductor of (and frequent visitor to)
the Philadelphia Orchestra was, sentiment aside, responsible for establishing a rock-solid
foundation for Adams’ long, eventful score that conjures endless varieties of extra-worldly sound.
Alsop indeed did that and never was the music upstaged by what is certainly among the Met’s
most visually dynamic productions .”

As the review concluded:

“Alsop had Adams’ orchestrally virtuosic score locking into place at every turn. … She and
the great Metropolitan Opera Orchestra felt the music’s propulsion without ever seeming
mechanical, navigated all hair-trigger turns, revealed passages that are meant to sound medieval,
and fused it all with a keen sense of overall connection. Alsop, now 67, has had a long road to the
Met. Once here, she delivered.”

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Marin Alsop: upcoming engagements

May 31; June 1 & 2: concerts with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
May 31: Hamburg, Germany (Hamburg International Music Festival)
June 1: Lübeck, Germany
June 2: Wismar, Germany
BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3
Sir James MACMILLAN: Saxophone Concerto (with Jess Gillam, saxophone)
PROKOFIEV: “Romeo and Juliet” Suites

June 7
Paris, France
Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France
Jessie MONTGOMERY: Strum for strings
GERSHWIN: Piano Concerto in F (with Marc-André Hamelin, piano)
BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra

June 14
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Concertgebouw
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Jessie MONTGOMERY: Strum for strings
John ADAMS: Fearful Symmetries
BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra

June 20
Katowice, Poland
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”)
(with Polish National Youth Choir; NFM Choir; Janai Brugger, soprano; Gerhild Romberger,
mezzo-soprano)

June 25
Philadelphia, PA
Marian Anderson Hall
Philadelphia Orchestra
“Pride” concert

June 27 & 29
College Park, MD
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
National Orchestral Institute + Festival
June 27
Gabriela ORTIZ: Antrópolis
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1
June 29
Jennifer HIGDON: blue cathedral
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9

June 30
Washington, D.C.
Washington National Cathedral
National Orchestral Institute + Festival
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9

July 5 & 6
Vail, Colorado
Bravo! Vail Music Festival
Philadelphia Orchestra
July 5
GERSHWIN: Cuban Overture
BERNSTEIN: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
GERSHWIN: Piano Concerto in F (with Conrad Tao, piano)
July 6:
Reena ESMAIL: RE|Member
COPLAND: Appalachian Spring Suite
HOLST: The Planets

July 10–27
Highland Park, IL
Ravinia Festival
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (except July 10)
July 10
National Seminario Ravinia: Orchestras for All
National Orchestral Institute + Festival
SIBELIUS: Finlandia
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1
July 12
COPLAND: Appalachian Spring Suite
JOHNSON (arr. David Rimelis): Charleston
BARBER: Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (with Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, soprano)
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue (with Michelle Cann, piano)
July 13
Iryna ALEKSIYCHUK: Go Where the Wind Takes You… (U.S. premiere)
Abel SELAOCOE: Four Spirits (with Abel Selaocoe, cello and vocals)
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5
July 20
MAHLER: Symphony No. 9
July 21
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Hayato Sumino, piano)
R. STRAUSS: Don Juan
RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2
July 25
WALKER: Icarus in Orbit (conductor: Taki Alsop Fellow Alena Hron)
BERNSTEIN: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto (with Augustin Hadelich, violin)
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite
July 26
“Breaking Barriers”
HOLST: The Planets (with Apollo Chorus of Chicago)
Amanda Lee FALKENBERG: The Moons Symphony (with visuals)
July 27
“Breaking Barriers”
Round Table talk
“Inside the Composers’ and Conductors’ Studios” workshop

Aug 5
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
National Youth Orchestra of the USA
BARBER: Symphony No. 1
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue (with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade

Aug 8–14: South American tour with National Youth Orchestra USA
Aug 8: Montevideo, Uruguay (Auditorio Nacional Adela Reta del Sodre)
Aug 10: Buenos Aires, Argentina (Teatro Colón)
Aug 12: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Teatro Municipal)
Aug 14: São Paulo, Brazil (Sala São Paulo)
BARBER: Symphony No. 1 (Aug 8–12 only)
BRAHMS: Academic Festival Overture (side-by-side with Orquestra Acadêmica Mozarteum Brasileira; Aug
14 only)
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue (with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade

Aug 21
Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh International Festival
Philharmonia Orchestra
Julia WOLFE: Fire in my mouth (UK premiere; with National Youth Choir of Scotland)

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