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Marin Alsop

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Marin Alsop is an American conductor, born in 1956 in New York to two professional musicians who played string instruments. She grew up in Manhattan, studied violin at the Juilliard School and played in orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic. She was turned down three times for Juilliard's conducting programme. So in 1981 she founded the New York String Ensemble, then the all-female jazz ensemble String Fever and, in 1984, Concordia, an orchestra of fifty musicians for twentieth-century American music.

Music and breakthrough

In 1983 she played first violin on the recording of The Photographer by Philip Glass, and in 1985 on the original cast recording of the musical Big River. In 1989 she became the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she met her hero and mentor Leonard Bernstein. In 2005 she received a MacArthur Fellowship, the Genius Grant. She led the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music from 1992 to 2016 and the Colorado Symphony from 1993 to 2005. She became music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and is now chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings include Victory Stride, on the symphonic music of James P. Johnson, from 1994, and Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman from 1999.

Influence

Alsop showed that women can stand at the head of the greatest orchestras. She combines classical, contemporary and American music, including that of jazz composers.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Victory Stride, the symphonic music of James P. Johnson played by Alsop, and notice how jazz rhythms and piano style are worked into an orchestral piece.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists