Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Hall fills with driving music. Violin phrases and pulsing brass combine. Musicians follow the conductor’s gestures – a steady beat, a flicker of the baton, an edging up of her brow.
This is the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s initial rehearsal after summer vacation and the first-time conductor Marin Alsop is leading the ensemble as its music director and the first woman to head a major U.S. orchestra. She suddenly halts a run-through of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
“We really need to play together out of the box,” says Alsop, whose shortish blond hair tops a compact build. The players adjust, and the music resumes. Alsop teases out accent (“Brass, can the trumpets play a little shorter?”) and detail (“I want the basses to articulate the opening”). There is a sense that she is shaping the music to conform with her view, while remaining open to possibilities.
“I don’t have anything particularly written out, no blueprint or template,” says Alsop, 50, who left Denver in 2005 after 12 seasons with the Colorado Symphony as music director.
“My ideas come from on-the-ground experience. … It is about getting to know the community and orchestra. It will take a few years to understand, really.”
Even before the first measure of last week’s season opener, Alsop’s credibility has gained from her work since early this year with the symphony’s new management and a reinvigorated board. They have wiped out a $17 million deficit and put the orchestra back in the black. Alsop has the orchestra recording again after a 10-year hiatus.
She has encouraged the musicians to visit local schools and work more closely with the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University, one of the nation’s top music schools.
A low $25 subscription ticket price – supported by a $1 million grant from PNC Financial Services Group Inc. – has helped fill seats.
“There was a lot of housecleaning that had to be done,” Alsop says. “Now that we have our house organized, we can start focusing on our artistic goals and on improving the quality of what we offer.”
Alsop has programmed a healthy dose of contemporary music, which she says will help with the orchestra’s “rhythmic acuity and precision.” For years, particularly through her directorship of the Cabrillo Festival in Santa Cruz, Calif., she has championed the music of composers from the minimalist and neo-romantic camps. “I feel like I can make the best case for these composers,” she says.
