BSO's Marin Alsop To Step Down As Music Director

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with their Music Director Marin Alsop perform a semi-staged concert version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Strathmore Music Center in 2010. Credit: Evy Mages for the Washington Post

Conductor Marin Alsop will step down as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra when her contract expires at the end of the 2020-21 season, the orchestra announced Friday.

Alsop has been the body's music director since 2007, when she became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra. Alsop will assume a new role as music director laureate, leading the orchestra in three concert weeks in each of the five seasons following the move and participate in outreach programs including OrchKids, which she founded.

“Marin has brought this Orchestra to unprecedented heights, and we will always be grateful for her vision and leadership," BSO Board Chair Barry Rosen said in a statement. "Her success as the BSO’s Music Director represents one of the longest tenures in the history of the Baltimore Symphony. Among her many accomplishments has been our outreach into the community as well as the creation of OrchKids, which now serves over 2000 school children in underserved Baltimore neighborhoods.”

Under Alsop, a 2009 recording of Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" earned a Grammy nomination for best classical album. It was one of 13 albums recorded by the BSO during her tenure. In 2018, she led the orchestra on its first international tour in 13 years. The tour included performances at the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms.

“We look forward to celebrating Marin and her remarkable accomplishments during our 2020-21 season, and to our continued work together in the years ahead," BSO President and CEO Peter Kjome said in a statement

Alsop's departure comes in a transitional period for the orchestra, which is charting a course for profitability after cutting back what had been a year-round concert season and bridging the ensuing labor dispute with its musicians.

"The musicians are proud of what we have accomplished under Marin's leadership. Her inventive and forward-looking tenure has been characterized by collaboration, inclusion and creativity," said Brian Prechtl, a percussionist and chair of the BSO's Players Committee, in a statement. "Marin's ability to draw listeners and community into greater understanding and relationship with the music and the musicians sets a new standard across the orchestral world. We are delighted that we will continue to work together for years to come."

In addition to the BSO, Alsop, 63, leads the São Paulo State Symphony and conducts the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in Austria. In 2005, she became the first conductor ever to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.

"The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is one of the world’s great orchestras and I have been proud to have served as its artistic leader for the past 14 years," Alsop said in a statement. "I am looking forward to leading these outstanding musicians as Music Director in the upcoming season and continuing our involvement in my new position as Music Director Laureate.”

The orchestra will form a search committee to seek a new music director.