Philadelphia Orchestra has announced that American conductor Marin Alsop will take over from Nathalie Stutzmann in the role of principal guest conductor next season.
She is contracted with the orchestra for a three-year tenure beginning with a 2024 tour of China. She will go on to conduct for two or three weeks per season. She will work alongside Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Philadelphia Orchestra's music director, who has held the top job since 2012.
Marin Alsop was the first woman to lead a top-level American orchestra when she was appointed as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2007. She first conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1990 and has since led it 32 times. 'It's a much more different organism than when I first conducted them,' she says. 'They're super-flexible. They're super-engaged. They're super-enthusiastic.'
Alongside her new post, she will continue as chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (where she is in her fifth season), principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in the UK, and chief conductor of the Ravinia Festival. She is currently also in her first season as chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony.
Alsop made history in the UK in 2013 when she became the first female conductor to lead the Last Night of the Proms. She returned to the Last Night stage again in 2015 and 2023.
Top image: Marin Alsop conducts the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (credit: Grant Leighton)
