Alsop to head Baltimore Symphony

Despite vigorous dissent by its musicians, the Baltimore Symphony appointed Marin Alsop music director Tuesday, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.

An “overwhelming” majority of the orchestra’s board voted for the appointment, Chairman Philip English said in a statement. He said Alsop had accepted the position and was expected to sign a contract soon. Details of the contract were not released.

Earlier this week, the seven musicians on the orchestra’s 21-member search committee asked English to postpone any decision and continue the search until Thanksgiving.

“Approximately 90% of the orchestra musicians believe that ending the search process now, before we are sure the best candidate had been found, would be a disservice to the patrons of the BSO and all music lovers in Maryland,” the musicians said in a statement, which did not mention Alsop by name or raise specific objections about her.

Alsop could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Although women conductors have headed American orchestras before and JoAnn Falletta is music director of the well-regarded Buffalo Philharmonic, this is the first time one will be leading an organization with international stature, said Julia Kirchhausen, a spokeswoman for the American Symphony Orchestra League.

Alsop, 48, is principal conductor at the Bournemouth Symphony in Britain. She will succeed Yuri Temirkanov, who is stepping down at the end of next season. Before her Bournemouth appointment, she was music director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for 12 years. She is also currently music director of the Cabrillo Festival.

The daughter of professional classical musicians, Alsop studied at the Juilliard School in New York City. In 1989 she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.

In 2003 she was voted Gramophone magazine’s Artist of the Year and won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s conductor’s award in the same season.

She has led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and National Symphony in the U.S. and the London Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian and Frankfurt Radio symphonies, among others.

The musicians, who were in rehearsal while the board was voting, expressed disappointment at what they called the “premature conclusion of the search process.”

“However, this will not dampen our enthusiasm and zest for music-making,” said Jane Marvine, an English horn player and chairwoman of a committee that represents the musicians in contract talks. “We’ll work together with Marin Alsop and every conductor to present the inspiring performance our audience has come to expect.”