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The Baltimore Sun wrote:New BSO conductor is 'genius' winner
Marin Alsop 1 of 25 to earn MacArthur grant of $500,000
By Tim Smith
Sun music critic
Originally published September 20, 2005

Marin Alsop, whose appointment as the next music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra generated international headlines - and local controversy - will today become one of 25 MacArthur fellows selected for 2005.

The "genius grant," given through the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in recognition of "creativity, originality and potential," comes with a no-strings award of $500,000.

"We picked Marin because she's a standout," said Daniel J. Socolow, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program. "She's truly creative. And there's every expectation she will become greater still."

In a statement announcing the selection of Alsop, the MacArthur Foundation praised "her masterful conducting technique and visionary artistic programming" and "extraordinary ability to communicate, both with her orchestra and with her audience."

The foundation also singled out Alsop's "musicality, her skill in making the unusual understandable, and championing of contemporary music." The conductor "defies stereotypes and offers a new model of leadership for orchestras in the U.S. and abroad."

The foundation notified the fellows of their selection before today's announcement.

"It was a big surprise, believe me," said Alsop, 48, reached in England, where she is principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. "I didn't know anything about it before getting the call last week. They said they had been looking at me for a few years, which is a great compliment unto itself."

The search committee for the MacArthur Foundation's Fellows Program reached its decision about Alsop as early as June, before the music world learned in mid-July that she would make history by becoming the first woman to head a major American orchestra when she assumes the BSO post in 2007.

Alsop's BSO appointment in July set off an unusual controversy, when up to 90 percent of the orchestra's players - without criticizing Alsop herself - objected publicly to the music director search process and what they labeled its premature close.

"We watched all the stuff happening in Baltimore with great interest," Socolow said, "but we were not be able to say anything."

Although the unrest between BSO management and musicians added an unexpected element to the story, the historic choice of Alsop still generated a public relations bonanza for the orchestra. Alsop was "Person of the Week" on ABC World News Tonight and featured in Time magazine and publications around the globe.

Today's MacArthur Foundation announcement reiterates the high-profile status the New York-born conductor brings to the BSO.

"In appointing Marin Alsop the BSO's new music director, we knew we had found greatness," board Chairman Philip D. English said in a prepared statement. "She is a dynamic leader and mentor whose musical mastery transcends the stage. We are proud of her amazing contributions to the classical music world and to society."

Alsop, a protege of Leonard Bernstein, is former music director of the Colorado Symphony. As a guest conductor, she has led some of the world's top ensembles, including the London Symphony and the New York Philharmonic.

Her discography documents a repertoire of standards by Brahms and Tchaikovsky as well as works by many of today's leading composers, including John Adams, Philip Glass and John Corigliano. She has been music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California since 1991.

The prestigious and unusually generous MacArthur program recognizes a wide spectrum of talent and achievement.

The 2005 honorees include a fisherman in Maine involved in saving ecosystems, a vehicle emissions specialist in Virginia and a pharmacist in Pennsylvania fighting medication errors in the health industry.

"I think Marin's the first conductor we've chosen," Socolow said. "But we haven't done a fisherman or a pharmacist before, either."

The foundation conducts its search for fellows in secrecy. No one can apply for the award, popularly known as a "genius grant" (a term the foundation does not use). Recipients are chosen through a confidential process that can involve hundreds of anonymous nominators invited by the foundation. A 12-member committee, also serving anonymously, makes the final choices.

The cash award of $500,000, paid quarterly over five years, comes without restrictions.

"This is an interesting kind of philanthropy," Socolow said. Unlike most fellowships, "You can't write a report about this one. There are no requirements."

There have been 707 fellows named since the foundation began the Fellows Program in 1981.

"The money gives recipients a little more sense of freedom and a level of responsibility - proving you are worthy of it," Socolow said. "I see fellows eager to contribute back to the larger society, which, in many cases, they have been doing all along."

Alsop hasn't decided yet how she will spend the windfall.

"It really requires serious thought and planning," the conductor said. "I'd like to use it to make a difference in things I believe in," such as expanding a fellowship she founded for female conductors.

Alsop might spend a little of the windfall on herself. "I like learning languages," she said. "Maybe I can now justify having a private tutor come over. That sort of thing. We'll see."

- - - - - - - - - -

Marin Alsop
Born: Oct. 16, 1956, in New York
Decided to conduct: age 9
Education: Yale University and Juilliard School of Music
Posts: Colorado Symphony Orchestra (1993-2005); Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in England (2002-present)
New post: Musical director, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (appointed July 19)
New honor: One of 25 MacArthur Foundation fellows for 2005
Next Baltimore performance: Jan. 12-14 (as guest conductor)

Dalton wrote:The conductor makes sure each section keeps up with each other and provides a central location for all the players to make sure they have the beat.

That's the experience I had when I was in my high school orchestra.

Rogue 9 wrote:A large orchestra, band, or choir will not be able to play together without someone coordinating the beat. Period. Once you get past six, maybe seven people, they can't all keep track of each other just from visual cues from the other musicians anymore.

Rogue 9 wrote:A large orchestra, band, or choir will not be able to play together without someone coordinating the beat. Period. Once you get past six, maybe seven people, they can't all keep track of each other just from visual cues from the other musicians anymore.

SCRawl wrote:Okay, this brings up the big question: of what importance, really, is the conductor? I have some minor musical experience myself (in the high school concert band); this experience is limited to reading music from a page and playing it on an instrument (the euphonium, if you must know). It seems to me that the music is there on the page, with instructions on how to play it. I suppose the conductor is there to interpret those instructions according to his/her "artistic" impressions, but we're just talking about rather minor stuff here. If the same piece -- say, the Impresario Overture by W.A. Mozart (my favourite to play) -- is to be prepared and performed by the same orchestra but by two different conductors, will the results be very much different?

Anyone?

Zaia wrote:

Rogue 9 wrote:A large orchestra, band, or choir will not be able to play together without someone coordinating the beat. Period. Once you get past six, maybe seven people, they can't all keep track of each other just from visual cues from the other musicians anymore.

<snip>

But the conductor is more about interpretation and phrasing than anything else. Anyone can move a stick in time to a metronome, but a conductor creates music through the shaping of phrases, which instrument timbres are brought out in which sections--that sort of thing. Each conductor is different because they've all learned different things and have different personal opinions on different pieces of music and how they think they should sound.

SCRawl wrote:Okay, this brings up the big question: of what importance, really, is the conductor?

It seems to me that the music is there on the page, with instructions on how to play it.

If the same piece -- say, the Impresario Overture by W.A. Mozart (my favourite to play) -- is to be prepared and performed by the same orchestra but by two different conductors, will the results be very much different?

SCRawl wrote:The conductor of a major orchestra can pull in high six figures to low seven figures per annum. I can keep everyone on the beat with a really big metronome.

Surlethe wrote:Damn. Why can't they give it to me so I can go to college?

On-topic ... sort of: I tend to give the musicians' opinions more weight than that when they're talking about potential conductors and search programs; my local symphony orchestra had a conductor search two years ago, and the conductor (who coincidentally resigned toward the end of this past season) chosen by the staff was the worst of the guest conductors in terms of being rated by the musicians.

But we haven't done a fisherman

CmdrWilkens wrote:

Surlethe wrote:Damn. Why can't they give it to me so I can go to college?

On-topic ... sort of: I tend to give the musicians' opinions more weight than that when they're talking about potential conductors and search programs; my local symphony orchestra had a conductor search two years ago, and the conductor (who coincidentally resigned toward the end of this past season) chosen by the staff was the worst of the guest conductors in terms of being rated by the musicians.

Side note did you see Zaia's earlier (about two/three months ago IIRC) post about the decision to hire Aslop? Just in regards to that I want to make sure everyone realizes the players think she could be great but basically said that if you are going to have a conductor search then maybe you should say...search as oppossed to bring in a couple people to make it look like a search but already be gunning for one paticular person.

Graeme Dice wrote:Without a conductor to control everything, you have a bunch of egos that don't work together too well.

Surlethe wrote:

CmdrWilkens wrote:Side note did you see Zaia's earlier (about two/three months ago IIRC) post about the decision to hire Aslop? Just in regards to that I want to make sure everyone realizes the players think she could be great but basically said that if you are going to have a conductor search then maybe you should say...search as oppossed to bring in a couple people to make it look like a search but already be gunning for one paticular person.

No, I didn't see it, but that makes sense.

Zaia wrote:

Surlethe wrote: No, I didn't see it, but that makes sense.

That would be this thread, entitled "Fuck yeah! BSO hires female conductor Marin Alsop!"

I think she's fantastic.