In September 2007, Marin Alsop was appointed the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Alsop became BSO's Music Director Designate in the 2006-2007 concert season, and in the 2007–2008 season, she assumed the orchestra's directorship, thus becoming its 12th music director. Her selection is noteworthy because Alsop is the first woman to lead a major American orchestra.

Alsop was born in New York City to professional musician parents. She attended Yale University, but later transferred to the Juilliard School, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees, both in violin. She founded the string ensemble String Fever in 1981. She won the Koussevitzky Prize as outstanding student conductor at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1989, where she

studied under Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Gustav Meier, among others.

Since officially assuming the music director post at the Baltimore Symphony in September 2007, Alsop's initiatives with the Baltimore Symphony have included the "Webumentary Film Series" and a free iTunes podcast, "Clueless About Classical." She recently announced a new education after-school program call "OrchKids", in which underprivileged children from Baltimore will receive free music instruction, based on Venezuela's El Sistema program.

Alsop is noted for her advocacy and interpretations of American music, but is establishing her reputation in the core symphonic repertory as well. She is the first woman to record the complete cycle of symphonies by Brahms (recorded with the London Philharmonic for Naxos Records). She is also the first woman conductor to have recorded a Mahler symphony with a major orchestra, the Fifth Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra on the LSO Live label.