Marin Alsop (born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor and violinist. She is the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra.
Alsop was born in New York City to professional musician parents. She attended Yale University, but later transferred to the Juilliard School, where she earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in violin. She founded the string ensemble String Fever in 1981. She won the Koussevitzky Prize as outstanding student conductor at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1989.

Early career
Alsop has been music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California, since 1992. The festival specializes in contemporary orchestral music. From 1993 to 2005, she was first principal conductor and then music director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. She is now the orchestra's conductor laureate. Alsop has also served as music director of the Eugene Symphony in Eugene, Oregon. She was associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony in Richmond, Virginia, from 1988 to 1990. On September 20, 2005, Alsop became the first conductor ever to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra  
In September 2007, Alsop was appointed the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO), having been named Music Director Designate for the 2006-07 concert season. Her selection is noteworthy because Alsop is the first woman to hold this position with a major American orchestra. The initial controversy surrounding her choice stemmed from significant resistance from the orchestra's players, who insisted they had not had enough voice in the search process. The orchestra and Alsop met after the announcement and apparently smoothed over some of their differences.[3][4] In June 2009, the orchestra announced the extension of her contract for another five years, through August 2015.[5]
Since she became music director, Alsop's initiatives with the Baltimore Symphony have included the Webumentary Film Series and a free iTunes podcast, Clueless About Classical. She recently announced a new educational program called OrchKids, in which underprivileged Baltimore children will receive free music instruction, based on Venezuela's El Sistema program. Alsop was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.[6]

Europe  
In the UK, Alsop has served as principal guest conductor with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and with the City of London Sinfonia.[7] Alsop became Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 2002 and served in the post until 2008.[8] She was voted Gramophone magazine's Artist of the Year in 2003 and won the Royal Philharmonic Society's conductor's award in the same season. In April 2007, Alsop was one of eight conductors of British orchestras to endorse the 10-year classical music outreach manifesto, Building on Excellence Orchestras for the 21st Century, to increase the presence of classical music in the UK, including giving free entry to all British schoolchildren to a classical music concert.[9] Alsop received an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Bournemouth University on 7 November 2007.
Alsop is noted for her advocacy and interpretations of American music, but is establishing her reputation in the core symphonic repertory as well. She is the first woman to record the complete cycle of symphonies by Brahms (recorded with the London Philharmonic for Naxos Records). She is also the first female conductor to have recorded a Mahler symphony with a major orchestra, the Fifth Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra on the LSO Live label.
During the final rounds of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition sessions 2010 and 2013 for piano, she conducted the National Orchestra of Belgium. In 2010 she accompanied the twelve finalists in Target by the South Korean composer JeonMinje, winner of the 2009 composition competition, and in the concerto of their choice. In 2013 she conducted the world premiere of In the wake of Ea by French composer Michel Petrossian as well as the concerts chosen by the candidates. [10]
In January 2011 Alsop was appointed as an Artist in Residence at London's Southbank Centre for the 2011-12 season. [11]

Latin America 
In 2012 Alsop replaced Yan Pascal Tortelier as principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and took it on a European tour, to UK, Germany and Netherlands.

Personal life  
Since 1990, Alsop's partner has been Kristin Jurkscheit, a horn player. They have a son, and Alsop has spoken publicly about her family.[12][13][14] While Alsop was conducting the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, of which her partner was a member, their relationship provoked controversy, though Alsop replied that the relationship predated her appointment to lead the orchestra and had no bearing on her job performance.[15]

Discography  
Marin Alsop conducted her first recording in 2000 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in a selection of works by Samuel Barber, which was released as part of the American Classics Series on Naxos. This disc was followed by four more released between 2001–2004 dedicated to the works of Samuel Barber.
In 2003, Marin Alsop released her first disc of Leonard Bernstein which she recorded with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. This featured the Symphonic Suite from the film On The Waterfront as well as Three Dance Episodes from On The Town. Following this in 2005, Alsop’s fully staged production of Bernstein’s Candide with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was nominated for an Emmy Award (DVD PBS Great Performances Image Entertainment). In June 2006, during her tenure as music director designate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Alsop led the Orchestra and violinist Joshua Bell in John Corigliano’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, The Red Violin, recorded by Sony Classics and released in September 2007. Also in her designate term, she conducted the Orchestra in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, an acclaimed performance that became the Orchestra’s first-ever live-recording release on iTunes and quickly became the number one classical download.
One of Alsop’s first projects as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was the Dvořák symphonic cycle, recorded on the Naxos label. The first disc in the series, featuring Symphony No. 9, From the New World, and Symphonic Variations, was released in February 2008. Of this release, BBC Music Magazine said, “It is rare to be able to say that a performance forces one to listen to a work anew, but this is exactly what Alsop’s reading achieves.” The disk was also nominated for BBC Music Magazine’s 2008 Album of the Year.
Other highlights of Alsop’s recording collaboration with Naxos include a Brahms symphony cycle with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and an ongoing series of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra recordings, which include Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the symphonies of Kurt Weill.
In 2009, Marin released a critically acclaimed recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra that earned a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Album and in 2010, Marin Alsop‘s recording of Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and soloist Colin Currie(2008) won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
Other recent releases include Dvorak symphonies 7 & 8 with Baltimore, “Nixon in China” and works by Harris, Copland and Barber, all on the Naxos label. In 2012, Alsop and the BSO released a recording of Mahler Symphony No. 1, also on Naxos.