Marin Alsop: I’d like to try out for LA Phil
NewsThe US conductor is presently chief conductor of the Vienna RSO, the Polish National Radio Symphony and the Ravinia Festival, as well as principal guest in Philadelphia.
Alsop, 67, also faces debuts with the Metropolitan Opera this season and the Berlin Philharmonic next.
But ambition still burns bright. She is being asked here by SFCV about vacancies at major US orchestras:
On the subject of career moves, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is in need of a new music director. Would you be interested in that position?
I haven’t been to L.A. in a few years. I’d love to do a weekend [as a guest conductor] and see how it goes. You never say never, but I try to live my life being present in whatever I’m doing. I’m full up at the moment — and enjoying it tremendously.
I have no idea what the future will bring. But it’s great to wake up every day and be grateful for one’s profession.
For God’s Sake: NO!
Great combo for God’s sake yes!
Yes, if only people woke up and be grateful for what they have in life, the world would certainly be a better place to live in. We only have the present, which is today not even tomorrow.
Not just LA, but SF and Cleveland.
They owe it to her to give her a week as guest.
She’s been here. Heard her at least twice. NOPE!
When is the last time she conducted the LA Phil? Was it 2007?
I think the last time I saw her conduct the LA Phil was when she led Mahler 5 at the Hollywood Bowl. I have to say that it was extraordinary because she did something I never thought could happen with Mahler 5: it was utterly boring.
Who else in history has held simultaneous positions in 2 Big Five orchestras (CSO at Ravinia, Philadelphia as principal guest)? She deserves respect.
Ugh. I can’t think of an orchestra she improved since Colorado.
My first thought, always, when I hear of any vacancy at all.
The headline doesn’t match her answer…
You’re a day late. April fool day was yesterday. Haha
She is a good conductor. Every time I’ve seen one of her concerts it has been worth it
As a woman conductor Marin was ‘the first kid on the block’ and if it weren’t for her we might not have Dalia Stasevska and others of real quality, but that is all you can say of her. Ravinia was payback for helping Chicago out, no more.
Putting Alsop and Stasevska in the same sentence with the word quality is pretty crude.
With articles like these I predict music journalism in San Francisco (represented here by SFCV) will do much, much better than their performing arts institutions such as SFS and SF Opera going forward. In fact people like Tom Jacobs will get to write autopsies of these institutions, telling us how revenues would have soared if only we were less bigoted. Think about the praises they could have written that would surely drive record-high ticket sales and donations, if only we followed their advice!
I laughed so hard my coffee shot it of my nose. This has to have been a tell question from the interviewer.
It’s musical chairs all the time in the conducting business. The conductors should hold one main job and no more than one secondary job, like a Summer Festival. Instead they should concentrate on building an orchestra and an audience for a change. Board members should’nt allow conductors with strings of posts. You want a little change, guest conduct when you have some time. End conductor greed.
American conductors just don’t get the same respect in the U.S. Besides, LA Phil want someone young and non-white for their target demographic (bilingual PSA announcement at every concert).
Don’t call us; we’ll call you.
Doesn’t she have a guest position in London too?
Yes, Ms Alsop is also Principal Guest Condiuctor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.
What a good fit, in as far as it is La-La-Land. She can do lots of film scores and pop music there and ruin the orchestra but draw big middle-brow audiences.