Marin Alsop makes Berlin Philharmonic & San Francisco Symphony debuts, continues first Philadelphia Orchestra season, & returns to NSO & NY Philharmonic in months ahead

(December 2024) — MacArthur award-winning conductor Marin Alsop makes her Berlin Philharmonic debut early next year, becoming the first U.S.-born woman to conduct the German orchestra in its long and venerable history (Feb 20–22). Over the coming months, she also returns to the States to continue her inaugural season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra (Dec 31; March 13–15) and make guest appearances with the New York Philharmonic (March 6–8), National Symphony Orchestra (Feb 27; March 1), Baltimore Symphony (April 17–19), and San Francisco Symphony, where she makes another eagerly anticipated debut (April 10–12). Back in Europe, she embarks on a Spanish tour and a William Kentridge collaboration as Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and continues her roles as Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor of Austria’s ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which she recently scored a Grammy nomination for “Best Orchestral Performance.”

Fifth Grammy nomination

It was for Adams: City Noir, Fearful Symmetries & Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance that Alsop received the new Grammy nomination, which marks her first with the Vienna RSO, and her fifth to date. Released by Naxos, the album combines John Adams’s City Noir and Fearful Symmetries with the premiere recording of Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance, a work Adams dedicated to the conductor herself. Subsequently incorporated into his opera The Girls of the Golden West, the piece was originally commissioned by California’s Cabrillo Festival Orchestra as a farewell gift to Alsop after her unprecedented 25-year tenure at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, where she had succeeded the composer as Music Director. Of the new recording, BBC Music magazine writes: “Alsop guides this programme of ultra-American music by John Adams with typical dedication and vim.”

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 ongoing threat to nature. In keeping with this theme, their program, “Paradise Lost,” 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 fast-disappearing Amazon (Feb 20–22).

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).

Other U.S. dates: Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, NSO, & BSO

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.” After inaugurating her three-season appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of ThePhiladelphia Orchestra with a fall tour of China, she reunites with the orchestra at its U.S. home on New Year’s Eve, for a festive, dance-themed program of Johann Strauss II, James P. Johnson, and more, featuring 13-year-old Japanese violin prodigy Himari, whose honors include first prize wins at the Kogan and Grumiaux International Violin Competitions, with live dance from New York’s Caleb Teicher & Company (Dec 31). Alsop rejoins The Philadelphia Orchestra in the spring for the world premiere of Picaflorby former Composer-in-Residence and Latin Grammy winner Gabriela Lena Frank; Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn; and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, showcasing Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient Randall Goosby (March 13–15).

Alsop returns to the podiums of three more leading U.S. orchestras next year. With the New York Philharmonic, she leads the world premiere of a new commission from Nico Muhly, with violinist and International Classical Music Awards’ 2024 “Artist of the Year” Renaud Capuçon as soloist, on a program with Beethoven’s Third Leonore Overture, Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by 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” (The 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). Finally, as Music Director Laureate & OrchKids Founder of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, she reprises Montero’s “Latin” Concerto, again with the composer as soloist, bookended by Antrópolis and Scheherazade (April 17–19).

Spanish tour, Kentridge collaboration, & more with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra

“Alsop whipped up the excitement right to the end,” declared The Times of London after one of her appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, a resident ensemble of London’s Southbank Centre. Now in the second season of her four-year appointment as its Principal Guest Conductor, early next year she leads the Philharmonia on a tour of Spain that takes them to Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Madrid, and Barcelona, with a program combining the Spanish premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Strum with Korngold’s Violin Concerto, featuring Menuhin Competition-winner María Dueñas, and excerpts from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (Jan 10–13).

Next spring, at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Alsop rejoins the orchestra for the Chichester Psalms by her former mentor Leonard Bernstein, followed by Shostakovich’s searing Tenth Symphony. Bernstein’s work will feature the Philharmonia Chorus, while Shostakovich’s will be heard alongside Oh To Believe in Another World, an animated film by South African artist William Kentridge. The symphony premiered in the wake of Stalin’s death, and Kentridge uses collage, puppets, and masked actors to capture the violence and dread of the dictator’s regime (April 24). Three days later, Alsop and the Philharmonia reprise their interpretation of Shostakovich’s work in Canterbury, England, where they will be joined by Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, a young pianist known for her “poetry and confidence” (The Guardian), in Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto (April 25).

Other European dates with Polish National Radio Symphony & ORF Vienna RSO

The Polish National Radio Symphony (NOSPR), Poland’s first independent radio symphony orchestra, makes its home in the city of Katowice. To complete her second season as its Artistic Director & Chief Conductor, Alsop leads three programs that open with works by Poland’s Grażyna Bacewicz, the most prolific female composer to date. After a concert combining Bacewicz’s music with that of Bartók and Sibelius (Jan 17), 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 a finale coupling the First Symphonies of Bacewicz and Gustav Mahler (June 26).

Alsop is also in her sixth season as Chief Conductor of Austria’s ORF Vienna RSO. After launching the new year together with performances of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, featuring Van Cliburn winner Yunchan Lim (Jan 23), and John Adams’s The Wound-Dresser, with baritone Matthias Goerne (Jan 29), they reunite next spring for 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).

Marin Alsop: upcoming engagements

Dec 31
Philadelphia, PA
The Philadelphia Orchestra
New Year’s Eve celebration
With Caleb Teicher & Company, dance
J. STRAUSS II: Overture to Die Fledermaus
KREISLER: “La gitana” (with Himari, violin)
WAXMAN: Carmen Fantasy (with Himari, violin)
BIZET: Selections from Suite No. 2 from L’Arlésienne
BERNSTEIN: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
J. STRAUSS II: “Voices of Spring” Waltz
GARDEL: “Por una cabeza”
JOHNSON: “Charleston”

Jan 10–13
Tour of Spain with Philharmonia Orchestra
   Jan 10: Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
   Jan 11: Tenerife
   Jan 12: Madrid
   Jan 13: Barcelona
KORNGOLD: Violin Concerto (with María Dueñas, violin)
PROKOFIEV: Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet
Jessie MONTGOMERY: Strum

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
Julia WOLFE: Her Story (with Lorelei Ensemble)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade

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
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Gabriela Lena FRANK: Picaflor (world premiere)
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto (with Randall Goosby, violin)
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by 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
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
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

April 24
London, England
Royal Festival Hall
BERNSTEIN: Chichester Psalms (with Philharmonia Chorus)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10 (with Oh To Believe in Another World, a film by William Kentridge)

April 25
Canterbury, England
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10

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

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

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
Finals

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