Baltimore Makes Musical History By Choosing Female Conductor

She took no questions, nor did English.

Alsop has won her orchestra -- but at a price. Not since Lorin Maazel was appointed music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in the early 1970s with only 2 percent of the ensemble naming him as first choice has any conductor faced such general opposition from the players.

The complaints about Alsop from the musicians are specific and detailed and are not about her sex. Her detractors say that her interpretations of the standard classical repertory are flat and uninteresting and that she lacks the technical skills to fix problems when they arise in rehearsal.

Sylvia Alimena, a conductor and horn player with the National Symphony Orchestra, defended Alsop. "Marin is one of the most hardworking and talented people out there, man or woman. She is always thoroughly prepared when she stands in front of an orchestra and has many, if not most, of her scores memorized."

Alsop is nothing if not resilient -- and determined. She set out to become a conductor more than 20 years ago. At one point, she used to invite musician friends over to her New York apartment and feed them pizza if they would let her conduct them after dinner. Now, she will oversee one of the better orchestras in the country, with almost 100 musicians, an operating budget of $30 million and a $75 million endowment.

"I had a lot of support, right from the beginning," she once said. "I remember when one of my teachers told me girls couldn't conduct. Do you know what my dad did? He went out and bought me a box of batons!"

After studies at Juilliard and Yale, she formed her first ensemble, the elaborately named Concordia -- A Chamber Symphony With a Touch of Jazz -- in 1984. Past music directorships have included the Colorado Symphony, the Eugene (Ore.) Symphony and the Long Island Philharmonic. She is the music director of the Bournemouth Symphony in England, and she has appeared as a guest conductor with leading orchestras throughout the world. As good as she is -- and Alsop at her best is very good indeed, especially in American music -- she has acknowledged that she wouldn't have had a chance at a position such as this until very recently.

"There are times when women who are somewhat older than I am come up and tell me they wish they'd had the opportunities to do what I'm doing now," she said in 1993. "But the nice thing is that it's not at all bitter; it's not, 'Oh, how I regret living when I did,' but more like, 'I'm so happy this is happening for you now. ' It's very warm, very supportive.

"Those are the great times," she said. "Those are the times when you feel like you've just crossed the finish line on behalf of everyone."