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Marin Alsop on Music In September, 2007, Marin Alsop became music director of the Baltimore Symphony, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She was named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive the award. Here, she offers commentary on a broad assortment of classical music.
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Special Series

Marin Alsop on Music

The Baltimore Symphony music director offers commentary on a broad assortment of classical music.

Saturday

Marin Alsop's Shared Musical Roots

Marin Alsop's Shared Musical Roots

The Baltimore Symphony conductor chooses a season of music built on the belief that understanding where we come from, and celebrating diversity, can create a sense of continuity, history and belonging — not to mention some great concerts.

Hear Marin Alsop and Scott Simon Discuss Gershwin On 'Weekend Edition Saturday'

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Friday

An Oasis Of New Music At The Cabrillo Festival

Conductor Marin Alsop (right) with composer Christopher Rouse at the Cabrillo Music Festival Cabrillo Festival/R.R. Jones hide caption

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Cabrillo Festival/R.R. Jones

An Oasis Of New Music At The Cabrillo Festival

Making its home in the quaint, quirky city of Santa Cruz, Calif., the Cabrillo Festival is a showcase for contemporary music. It draws many of today's important composers and musicians.

An Oasis Of New Music At The Cabrillo Festival

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Saturday

Jennifer Higdon And Me: A Musical Friendship

Marin Alsop says she can't remember the first time she met composer Jennifer Higdon, and both simply believe they've always known each other. Oddly, the two women have never had a conversation about gender in the classical-music world — that is, until now. Higdon's Violin Concerto is set to be performed by Hilary Hahn next month.

Jennifer Higdon And Me: A Musical Friendship

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Saturday

Copland: Early Music From America's Composer

Conductor Marin Alsop examines the rarely heard music from early in Aaron Copland's career. With an ear toward Copland's bold and sometimes jazzy rhythms, Alsop says that listeners can hear hints of the wide expanses that would later open up in music such as Appalachian Spring.

Copland: Early Music From America's Composer

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Saturday

Revisiting Bernstein's Immodest 'Mass'

Leonard Bernstein wrote his Mass to memorialize John F. Kennedy. But conductor Marin Alsop says that the dizzyingly eclectic work reveals more about its composer than anyone else.

Revisiting Bernstein's Immodest 'Mass'

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Friday

Robert Schumann: Music Amid The Madness

Marin Alsop, meet Robert Schumann. The Baltimore Symphony conductor reconnects with the composer's symphonies, probing for a deeper meaning within this widely performed but still misunderstood music. The Symphony No. 2, Alsop says, traces Schumann's emotional frailty.

Hear Marin Alsop discuss Schumann with NPR's Scott Simon

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Friday

Dvorak's Symphonic Journey to the 'New World'

Czech composer Antonin Dvorak wrote his New World Symphony in New York. Conductor Marin Alsop sees the work as Dvorak's symphony of self-discovery, filled with the sounds of new places and nostalgic nods to his homeland.

Hear Alsop discuss Dvorak on 'Weekend Edition Saturday'

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Saturday

Sunday

Friday

Breaking Through to Bartok

Conductor Marin Alsop recognizes the challenging aspects of Bela Bartok's music. But after presiding over a Bartok festival this spring, she came to a deeper understanding of the Hungarian composer's music, which she describes as a major influence on her own career.

Hear Alsop discuss Bartok on 'Weekend Edition Saturday'

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Saturday

Marin Alsop: Orbiting the Symphonies of Brahms

When Marin Alsop heard a piece by Brahms as a youngster, she discovered the transforming power of music. Now the celebrated conductor has recorded each of Brahms' four symphonies and thinks of them as a symphonic solar system filled with tenderness, humor and struggle.

Hear Alsop discuss Brahms on 'Weekend Edition Saturday'

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Saturday

Rimsky-Korsakov Lets the Symphony Tell the Story

Storytellers of the Middle East have been retelling the tales of Sinbad and Aladdin. But according to legend, the first was a young bride named Scheherazade. Rimsky-Korsakov spins the tale in music.

Alsop discusses Scheherazade on 'Weekend Edition Saturday'

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Friday

Getting Hooked on the 'Rite' Sound

Igor Stravinsky's exotic, propulsive ballet The Rite of Spring captured conductor Marin Alsop's imagination at an early age. She says the music's "swing and sheer abandon" got her hooked, and the orchestra became her passion.

Hear Alsop discuss Stravinsky on Weekend Edition Saturday

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Friday

Mahler's Fifth Symphony: The Everest of Music

Even as a young man, Mahler was after the big picture. When other twentysomethings might have been writing lighthearted music, Mahler was trying to solve the riddles of the universe through his epic symphonies. They were vehicles for him to express his beliefs and pose questions.

Hear Alsop discuss Mahler on Weekend Edition Saturday

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Saturday

'Too Hot to Handel': A Modern 'Messiah'

While talking to friends, Marin Alsop realized that Handel's "Messiah" was in dire need of an update. She had already entertained the idea that "Messiah" would lend itself to a 20th-century remake, and once she got inspired about the idea, everything else began to fall into place.

Hear Alsop discuss Handel on Weekend Edition Saturday

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