Marin Alsop makes Berlin Philharmonic & San Francisco Symphony debuts; launches Philadelphia Orchestra appointment with Chinese tour; returns to New York Philharmonic, National Symphony, & Chicago Symphony; and continues tenures with London’s Philharmonia, Polish National Radio Symphony, & ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2024–25 season

(August 2024) — MacArthur award-winning conductor Marin Alsop maintains a major presence
on three continents in the 2024-25 season. She makes debuts with the San Francisco Symphony
(April 10–12) and Berlin Philharmonic (Feb 20–22), becoming the first U.S.-born woman to
conduct the German orchestra in its long and venerable history; launches her three-season
appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra with a tour of China
(Nov 2–10), followed by concerts at the orchestra’s home (Dec 31; March 13–15); makes guest
appearances with such eminent U.S. ensembles as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Oct 10 &
11), National Symphony Orchestra (Feb 27; March 1), and New York Philharmonic (March
6–8); and continues her roles as Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia
Orchestra, Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony
Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of Austria’s ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, whose
season she opens with an extensive Japanese tour (Sep 7–19). “A formidable musician and a
powerful communicator” (New York Times) who triumphed in her recent Metropolitan Opera
debut, Alsop was chosen this year as one of “the 25 greatest conductors of all time” (Classic
FM).

Berlin Philharmonic & San Francisco Symphony debuts

Named 2021 Classical Woman of the Year by American Public Media’s Performance Today, Alsop
has consistently shattered glass ceilings throughout her career. Having made history as the first
female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, and the first female and first American to
guest conduct it three times, this season she becomes the first U.S.-born woman to conduct the
Berlin Philharmonic since its founding in 1882. Her long-awaited debut with the orchestra takes
place at its 2025 Biennale, which addresses the threat to nature. In keeping with this theme,
their program combines the world premiere of a new Berlin Philharmonic and Boston
Symphony co-commission from Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen, whose new work draws
inspiration from her native Lapland, with three compositions from the Americas. The 1954
version of Copland’s Appalachian Spring recalls the lost world of 19th-century Pennsylvania,
Brett Dean’s Fire Music conjures a devastating Australian bushfire, and Villa-Lobos’s Chôros No.
10 (“Rasga o coração”), for which Alsop and the orchestra will be joined by the Berlin Radio
Choir, evokes the birdsongs of the Amazon (Feb 20, 21 & 22).

Music of the Americas takes center stage once again for Alsop’s debut with the San Francisco
Symphony. She performs Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man alongside Joan Tower’s
Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, a work dedicated to the conductor, together with Gabriela
Montero’s “Latin Concerto,” featuring the Venezuelan composer-pianist as soloist; Barber’s First
Symphony, of which Alsop’s recording is “a must-have” (San Francisco Classical Voice); and
Antrópolis by Mexican Grammy nominee Gabriela Ortiz (April 10–12).

Inaugural Philadelphia Orchestra season: Chinese tour & more

As Alex Ross noted this past spring in the New Yorker, Alsop has had “as constructive an
influence on this country’s orchestral life as any conductor working.” She enjoys a long
history with the Philadelphia Orchestra, having led 34 concerts with the ensemble since their
first appearance together in 1990. In recent seasons, their collaborations have included a summer
program of Holst, Copland, and Reena Esmail at Colorado’s Bravo! Vail, two consecutive annual
Pride Concerts in Philadelphia, and “a viscerally thrilling performance” (Financial Times) of The
Rite of Spring at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Now Alsop inaugurates her three-season appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the
orchestra with a five-concert Chinese tour (Nov 2–10). This kicks off with a program
juxtaposing Beethoven and Brahms with modern settings of Tang Dynasty poetry at Beijing’s
National Centre for the Performing Arts. Van Cliburn winner Haochen Zhang joins Alsop and the
orchestra for piano concertos by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff in Hainan and Chengdu, where
they perform side-by-side with the Chengdu Symphony. Among other tour highlights,
Grammy-nominated pipa virtuoso Wu Man performs a concerto by venerable concert and film
composer Jiping Zhao, and Alsop interprets both Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony and
Beethoven’s Seventh.

She subsequently rejoins the orchestra at its Philadelphia home, first for a festive New Year’s Eve
concert (Dec 31), and then for the world premiere of Picaflor by former Composer-in-Residence
and Latin Grammy winner Gabriela Lena Frank; Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Haydn; and
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, featuring Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient Randall Goosby
(March 13–15).

Guest dates with New York Philharmonic, National Symphony, Chicago Symphony & more

Alsop returns to the podiums of five more leading U.S. orchestras over the coming season. With
the New York Philharmonic, she leads the world premiere of a new commission from Nico
Muhly, with violinist Renaud Capuçon as soloist, on a program with Beethoven’s Third Leonore
Overture, Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Haydn, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (March 6–8).
It was in ballet music by Stravinsky’s compatriot Prokofiev that the conductor demonstrated “her
vivid sense of color and rhythmic clarity” (New York Times) with the Philharmonic last year.

At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., she leads the National Symphony Orchestra in a
pairing of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade with Julia Wolfe’s Her Story, which commemorates
the fight for women’s suffrage, and which will – as when the conductor led its Chicago premiere
last year – feature the all-female vocalists of the Lorelei Ensemble (Feb 27; March 1). Alsop
returns to the Kennedy Center later next spring for “An American Rhapsody,” a Washington
National Opera gala concert with vocal stars Renée Fleming, Denyce Graves, and Thomas
Hampson (May 3).

As Chief Conductor of the Ravinia Festival, Alsop enjoys an exceptionally close rapport with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where she is “a powerful and communicative force on the
podium” (Chicago Classical Review). This fall, she leads the orchestra in accounts of
Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony; James Lee III’s Harriet Tubman tribute, Chuphshah! Harriet’s
Drive to Canaan; and Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, with Lukáš Vondráček as soloist (Oct 10
& 11).

A related program, combining Chuphshah! with Prokofiev’s Fourth Symphony and Chopin’s First
Piano Concerto, is the vehicle for the first of Alsop’s two programs as Music Director Laureate &
OrchKids Founder of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Oct 17–20). She returns to
Baltimore for Gabriela Montero’s “Latin” Concerto, again with the composer as soloist (April
17–19).

With the Cincinnati Symphony, Alsop conducts a coupling of Shostakovich’s Seventh
Symphony, “Leningrad,” with Chichester Psalms by Bernstein, her former mentor (Nov 16 & 17).
A protégée of the American composer, Alsop is one of the foremost exponents of his music, and
her recordings of Bernstein’s complete orchestral works feature “definitive performances”
(New York Times), “some of which seem better than the composer’s own” (San Francisco
Classical Voice).

Beyond the States, as Conductor of Honour of Brazil’s São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra,
she leads a program of Beethoven, Villa-Lobos, and Rachmaninoff, featuring BBC Music
Magazine Award-winning pianist Nikolai Lugansky (Sep 24).

Second season with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra

In the second season of her four-year appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of London’s
Philharmonia Orchestra, Alsop leads a program of music by Gustav and Alma Mahler at the
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, where there will be an open rehearsal on the morning
of the concert. Two-time Grammy-winning mezzo Sasha Cooke is the soloist in orchestral
arrangements of songs by Alma Mahler, bookended by Alsop’s interpretations of Gustav Mahler’s
Blumine – the discarded movement from his First Symphony – and of his beloved Fifth (Oct 24).
“Alsop whipped up the excitement right to the end,” declared The Times of London about one
of the conductor’s previous Philharmonia appearances, and after her account of Mahler’s First
with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bachtrack praised her “captivating Mahler,” concluding:
“Altogether, a thrilling performance, and a perfect example of Alsop’s craft.”

Second season with Polish National Radio Symphony

The Polish National Radio Symphony (NOSPR), Poland’s first independent radio symphony
orchestra, makes its home in the city of Katowice. In the second season of her tenure as its
Artistic Director & Chief Conductor, Alsop leads five programs with the orchestra, in which
Polish composers figure prominently. After an Opening Night concert featuring Japanese pianist
Hayato Sumino in concertos by Gershwin and Władysław Szpilman (Oct 4), their remaining
programs all open with works by Grażyna Bacewicz, the most prolific female composer to date.
After concerts combining her music with that of Beethoven, Ravel, and Richard Strauss (Dec
19) and of Bartók and Sibelius (Jan 17) respectively, Alsop and NOSPR perform an all-Polish
program of Bacewicz, Penderecki, and Szymanowski, for whose Stabat Mater they will be
joined by Erica Eloff, Ben McAteer, and the NFM Choir (March 27). They conclude their season
with the First Symphonies of Bacewicz and Gustav Mahler (June 26).

Last fall, when Alsop led NOSPR in a rare, semi-staged performance of Penderecki’s opera The
Black Mask, to commemorate the late composer’s 90th birthday, Poland’s Ogolokrajow
(“Nationwide”) observed:

“Magnificent. … She conducted the opera with extraordinary clarity and awareness of the sonic
effect that Penderecki enshrined in the masterful instrumentation of the work. … Her
interpretation was masterful – characterized by her control of every chord, every sound
sequence, and her ability to create heated emotions.”

Japanese tour and more with ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

The 2024-25 season marks Alsop’s sixth as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio
Symphony Orchestra. They launch the season together with a high-profile, eleven-city
Japanese tour, appearing in Yokohama, Tokyo, Takamatsu, Aichi, Fukuoka, Niigata, Nagano,
Osaka, Tokorozawa, Sapporo, and Hiroshima with a program of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony,
Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, and Mozart’s “Coronation” Concerto, featuring Hayato Sumino
(Sep 7–19).

Alsop leads a further eight programs with the orchestra at home in Vienna. Highlights include
new and recent music by Xenakis, John Luther Adams, and Nina Šenk (Oct 30); the seasonal
special “Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah” (Dec 5); a collaboration with Gabriela
Montero on her “Latin” Concerto (Dec 12); Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, with Van
Cliburn winner Yunchan Lim (Jan 23); John Adams’s The Wound-Dresser with baritone Matthias
Goerne (Jan 29); an all-Wynton Marsalis program featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra and the Austrian premiere of Marsalis’s Trumpet Concerto (April 3); an Austrian
program of Mahler, Zemlinsky, and Zeisl (May 18); and a season-closing account of Mahler’s
mighty “Resurrection” Symphony at the Vienna Musikfest, where Alsop and the RSO Vienna
will be joined by the Wiener Singakademie, Nikola Hillebrand, and Sasha Cooke (May 22).

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Marin Alsop: 2024-25 engagements

Sep 7-19: Japanese tour
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Sep 7: Yokohama
Sep 8: Tokyo (Suntory Hall)
Sep 9: Takamatsu
Sep 10: Aichi
Sep 11: Fukuoka
Sep 13: Niigata
Sep 14: Nagano
Sep 15: Osaka
Sep 16: Tokorozawa
Sep 17: Sapporo
Sep 19: Hiroshima
Jessie MONTGOMERY: Strum
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 26, “Coronation” (with Hayato Sumino, piano)
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7

Sep 24
São Paulo, Brazil
São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (OSESP)
BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3
VILLA-LOBOS: Bachianas brasileiras No. 4
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 (with Nikolai Lugansky, piano)

Oct 4
Katowice, Poland
Polish National Radio Symphony (NOSPR)
Opening Night
BARBER: Symphony No. 1
SZPILMAN: Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (with Hayato Sumino, piano)
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Haydn
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue (with Hayato Sumino, piano)

Oct 10 & 11
Chicago, IL
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
James LEE III: Chuphshah! Harriet’s Drive to Canaan
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Lukáš Vondráček, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5

Oct 17, 19 & 20
Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
James LEE III: Chuphshah! Harriet’s Drive to Canaan
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Hayato Sumino, piano)
PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 4

Oct 24 (with open rehearsal at 10:30am)
London, UK
Royal Festival Hall
Philharmonia Orchestra
Gustav MAHLER: Blumine
Alma MAHLER (orch. David & Colin Matthews): songs (with Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Gustav MAHLER: Symphony No. 5

Oct 30
Vienna, Austria
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Nina ŠENK: Flux: Triple Concerto for horn, trumpet & accordion (with Christoph Walder, horn; Anders
Nyqvist, trumpet; Krassimir Sterev, accordion)
XENAKIS: Terretektorh
John Luther ADAMS: Become Ocean

Nov 2–10
Chinese tour
Philadelphia Orchestra

Nov 2: Beijing (National Centre for the Performing Arts)
BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Tang Poetry project

Nov 6: Chengdu (Chengdu City Concert Hall)
Side-by-side with Chengdu Symphony
BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Haochen Zhang, piano)
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7

Nov 7: Chengdu (Chengdu Arena)
ROSSINI: Barber of Seville Overture
RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (with Haochen Zhang, piano)
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”

Nov 9: Hainan
ROSSINI: Barber of Seville Overture
RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (with Haochen Zhang, piano)
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”

Nov 10: Hainan
BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3
Jiping ZHAO: Pipa Concerto No. 2 (with Wu Man, pipa)
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”

Nov 16 & 17m
Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
BERNSTEIN: Chichester Psalms (with May Festival Chorus)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 7

Dec 5
Vienna, Austria
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
HANDEL, arr. Bob Christianson & Gary Anderson: “Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah”

Dec 12
Vienna, Austria
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Gabriela ORTIZ: Antrópolis
Gabriela MONTERO: Piano Concerto No. 1, “Latin” (with Gabriela Montero, piano)
Jessie MONTGOMERY: Strum
BARBER: Symphony No. 1

Dec 19
Katowice, Poland
Polish National Radio Symphony (NOSPR)
BACEWICZ: Introduction and Capriccio
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 (with Paul Lewis, piano)
R. STRAUSS: Till Eulenspiegel
RAVEL: Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloé

Dec 31
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Orchestra
New Year’s Eve celebration

Jan 17
Katowice, Poland
Polish National Radio Symphony (NOSPR)
BACEWICZ: Polish Dance Suite
SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto (with Inmo Yang, violin)
BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra

Jan 23
Vienna, Austria
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Brett DEAN: Fire Music
COPLAND: Appalachian Spring (1943–44/1945)
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Yunchan Lim, piano)

Jan 29
Vienna, Austria
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
BARBER: Adagio for Strings
John ADAMS: The Wound-Dresser (with Matthias Goerne, baritone)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No, 10

Feb 20, 21 & 22
Berlin, Germany
Berlin Philharmonic (debut)
Outi TARKIAINEN: new work (world premiere of new Berlin Philharmonic & Boston Symphony Orchestra
co-commission)
Brett DEAN: Fire Music
COPLAND: Appalachian Spring (1954 version)
VILLA-LOBOS: Chôros No. 10, “Rasga o coração” (with Berlin Radio Choir)

Feb 27; March 1
Washington, D.C.
Kennedy Center
National Symphony Orchestra
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade
Julia WOLFE: Her Story (with Lorelei Ensemble)

March 6, 7 & 8
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3
Nico MUHLY: New work (world premiere of New York Philharmonic commission; with Renaud Capuçon,
violin)
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Haydn
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite (1919 version)

March 13, 14 & 15
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Orchestra
Gabriela Lena FRANK: Picaflor (world premiere)
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto (with Randall Goosby, violin)
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme of Haydn

March 27
Katowice, Poland
Polish National Radio Symphony (NOSPR)
BACEWICZ: Suite for Symphony Orchestra
SZYMANOWSKI: Symphony No. 4 (Symphonie concertante) (with Szymon Nehring, piano)
PENDERECKI: Chaconne
SZYMANOWSKI: Stabat Mater (with Erica Eloff, soprano; Ben McAteer, baritone; NFM Choir)

April 3
Vienna, Austria
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Wynton MARSALIS: Trumpet Concerto (Austrian premiere; with Selina Ott, trumpet)
Wynton MARSALIS: Symphony No. 4, “The Jungle”

April 10, 11 & 12
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Symphony (debut)
Gabriela ORTIZ: Antrópolis
Gabriela MONTERO: Piano Concerto No. 1, “Latin” (with Gabriela Montero, piano)
COPLAND: Fanfare for the Common Man
Joan TOWER: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
BARBER: Symphony No. 1

April 17, 18 & 19
Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Gabriela ORTIZ: Antrópolis
Gabriela MONTERO: Piano Concerto No. 1, “Latin” (with Gabriela Montero, piano)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade

May 3
Washington, D.C.
Kennedy Center
Washington National Opera
Gala: “An American Rhapsody” (with Renée Fleming, soprano; Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano; Thomas
Hampson, baritone)

May 18
Vienna, Austria
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
ZEMLINSKY: Psalm 13
ZEISL: Hebrew Requiem, Psalm 92
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1, “Titan”
(With Dana Marbach, soprano; Annette Schoenmüller, mezzo-soprano, Adrian Eröd, baritone; Wolfgang
Kogert, organ; Wiener Singakademie)

May 22
Vienna, Austria
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Vienna Musikfest
MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection” (with Nikola Hillebrand, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano;
Wiener Singakademie)

June 1–7
Fort Worth, TX
Cliburn Competition (jury)
Finals

June 26
Katowice, Poland
Polish National Radio Symphony (NOSPR)
BACEWICZ: Symphony No. 1
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1, “Titan”

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