The only conductor to receive a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, trailblazer Marin Alsop is the first woman to lead a major orchestra in the United States, in South America, in Austria, and in Britain. In addition to her accomplishments, she is vigilant about keeping the doors open for other women. Marin and David discuss the importance of partnership between musicians and a conductor, challenge of criticism, trouble of artistic perfection, and how she views the audience as an active participant in the concert experience. She reflects on her early musical idols, the Beatles and her longtime mentor and teacher Leonard Bernstein, and two of her landmark initiatives, the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship whose mission is to mentor, support, and promote women conductors as they advance in their professional careers, and OrchKids, which provides Baltimore City youth with equitable access to community-based, high-quality music instruction and programming that teaches musical and social skills transferable to all areas of their lives.

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You can learn more about OrchKids here and the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship here.

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This interview has been edited and condensed to fit the time format.

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