Marin Alsop
Kirsty Young talks to conductor Marin Alsop.
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the conductor, Marin Alsop.
Music Director of both The Baltimore Symphony and The Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, she is a maestro with a mission: music, she believes, is a powerful vehicle for social change.
She had the good fortune to be brought up in "a household that exuded possibility" and was filled with music - both her parents played professionally. She took up the piano aged two, swapped to the violin at 6 and then aged 9, saw Leonard Bernstein at work and made the decision that conducting would be her career. Much later she would go on to be mentored by the man who inspired her.
It bores her when interviewers ask why there aren't more women conductors - nonetheless her capacity to maximise the few opportunities she was given as a young woman making her way in an exclusively mans' world gives one a flavour of her indomitability. Her day-to-day job after all is working out how to convince 100 experts to do what she wants.
She says, "maybe it's being an only child: you want to bring people together and create this big family feeling, I don't know what it is but I always gravitated towards organising."
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
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Music Played
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Johannes Brahms
String Sextet in B flat Major
Performer: Amadeus Quartet. Performer: Cecil Aronowitz. Performer: William Pleeth.- Amadeus Quartet: String Quartets.
- Deutsche Gramophon.
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Aretha Franklin
Respect
- I never loved a man the way I love You.
- Atlantic.
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Castaway's Favourite
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Gustav Mahler
Symphony No 9 in D Flat Major 4th movement
Performer: Leonard Bernstein. Performer: New York Philharmonic.- Mahler: Symphonies Nos 7 & 9.
- CBS.
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Leonard Bernstein
Mass
Performer: Marin Alsop. Performer: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.- Marin Alsop: Mass/Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
- Naxos.
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Stéphane Grappelli
It Don't Mean a Thing
- Compact Jazz.
- Caz.
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Béla Bartók
Contrasts
Performer: Benny Goodman. Performer: Joseph Szigeti. Performer: Béla Bartók.- Clarinet Classics.
- Pearl.
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Robert Schumann
Piano Quartet
Performer: Beaux Arts Trio. Performer: Samuel Rhodes.- Piano Quartet.
- Philips.
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Johannes Brahms
Requiem - Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen
Performer: MDR Leipzig Radio Choir & Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Marin Alsop.- German Requiem.
- Naxos.
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Book Choice
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Collected works - Carl Jung
Luxury Choice
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Pottery studio
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Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Kirsty Young |
| Interviewed Guest | Marin Alsop |
| Producer | Cathy Drysdale |
Broadcasts
- Sun 28 Sep 2014 11:15BBC Radio 4
- Fri 3 Oct 2014 09:00BBC Radio 4
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