Just Named Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia, Marin Alsop Leads Unprecedented Third “Last Night of the Proms,” Plus Six CSO Programs

(April 2023) — It was a full decade ago, in 2013, that Marin Alsop became the first woman to conduct London’s Last Night of the Proms. Now the MacArthur award-winning conductor is poised to make history once again. When she leads the Last Night of the 2023 BBC Proms on September 9, she will represent not only the first woman, but also the first American to guest conduct three Last Nights in the festival’s 128-year history. This milestone event follows the announcement that Alsop has been named Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra for a four-season appointment, starting this fall. Meanwhile she is undertaking a series of high-profile U.S. engagements. After stepping in to draw “a viscerally thrilling performance” (Financial Times) from the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, she reunites with the same ensemble for Pride Week (June 3); helms an all-Russian evening with the New York Philharmonic at Colorado’s Bravo! Vail festival (July 26); and, as Chief Conductor of the Ravinia Festival, leads six creatively curated programs with the Chicago Symphony at its summer home (July 8–Aug 6). Alsop may also be heard conducting the world premiere recordings of concertos by Malek Jandali on a new Cedille Records release with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (May 12), where she is now completing her fourth season as Chief Conductor.

Making history at London’s Last Night of the Proms

The closing concert of London’s annual BBC Proms festival has long been an iconic if sometimes controversial tradition. Ten years ago, Alsop’s Last Night of the Proms debut was hailed as “one of the slickest Last Nights in recent memory with music and mayhem, virtuosity and fun, held in reasonably stable equilibrium” (The Arts Desk, UK). The Guardian affirmed:

After leading a second Last Night two years later, now Alsop returns to London’s Royal Albert Hall for her third, at which she and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Choruswill be joined by British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen. Featuring the world premiere of 1922, a celebration of the BBC’s centenary from fast-rising British composer James B. Wilson, their program will once again see the conductor put her own characteristic spin on the event’s trademark mix of singalongs, sea shanties, flag-waving and humor (Sep 9).

New appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra

Alsop’s previous appearances with Sheku Kanneh-Mason include a concerto collaboration during one of her three highly acclaimed concerts with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra last year. Their performance prompted The Times of London to marvel:

Now, citing her “exceptional musicianship, commitment to diversity and education, and the breadth of her repertoire,” the orchestra has named Alsop its next Principal Guest Conductor. She inaugurates this four-season appointment this fall, with a jazz-infused, all-American program to kick off the orchestra’s “Let Freedom Ring” series (Oct 19).

Kira Doherty, President of the Philharmonia says:

Alsop responds:

Innovative Chicago Symphony programs at Ravinia

Alsop remains in high demand in her homeland. She drew rave reviews at the Ravinia Festival last year, where, as Chief Conductor, she led five programs with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and inaugurated a new mini-festival, “Breaking Barriers.” Chicago’s WTTW TV pronounced her CSO collaboration “a once-in-a-lifetime experience” and Classical Voice North America observed: “Summer festivals can and should take more risks and, indeed, break barriers. That is exactly what Alsop and Ravinia did successfully.”
 
This season she returns for another summer of innovative programming with the Chicago Symphony. Highlights include a season-opening reimagining of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, showcasing African drumming and original text by former U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith (July 14); a pairing of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony with songs by Alma Mahler, featuring Grammy-winning mezzo Sasha Cooke (July 19); and Ravinia’s second annual “Breaking Barriers” festival: “Celebrating Women Composers” (July 21–23). Together with Valentina Peleggi, a graduate of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, Alsop leads the three-day mini-festival’s opening concert: a program of CSO premieresfrom Gabriela Ortiz, Roxanna Panufnik and Gabriela Montero, who appears as soloist in her own Latin Piano Concerto (July 21).

Returns to Philadelphia Orchestra & New York Philharmonic

Alsop also returns to two other top American orchestras this summer. To celebrate Pride Week, she conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra with the ANNA Crusis Feminist Choir, Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus and Philadelphia Voices of Pride in the world premiereof The Marvels Suite by five-time Emmy-winner Laura Karpman, flanked by music ranging from Lady Gaga and Jeppe Laursen’s “Born This Way” to Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, a work dedicated to the conductor herself (June 3).
 
The concert follows Alsop’s recent success when she stepped in for an ailing Yannick Nézet-Séguin to lead the Philadelphia Orchestra in “a precise and transparent, yet terrifyingly alive Rite of Spring” (New York Times) at Carnegie Hall. As the Financial Times reported:

Alsop returns to New York later this spring to conduct Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic in the U.S. premiere of Chick Corea’s Trombone Concerto (May 25–27), before reuniting with the same ensemble at Colorado’s Bravo! Vail festival. Their all-Russian program pairs Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite with Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, featuring Yunchan Lim, the youngest Van Cliburn gold medallist to date (July 26).

World premiere recordings with Rachel Barton Pine & Anthony McGill

Now nearing the end of her fourth season as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alsop also looks forward to the release of their most recent recording together. Scheduled for physical and digital release by Cedille Records on May 12, the new album presents Rachel Barton Pine and Anthony McGill as soloists in the world premiere recordings of new violin and clarinet concertos by Malek Jandali, the Syrian American composer known for his “heart-rending melodies, lush orchestration, clever transitions and creative textures'' (American Record Guide).

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