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Marin Alsop Documentary "The Conductor" on PBS Great Performances
Posted March 22, 2022
Great Performances celebrates Marin Alsop in The Conductor, Premiering on March 25 on PBS
Features previously unseen archival footage with mentor Leonard Bernstein
The Conductor tells the story of the first female conductor of a major symphony, Marin Alsop. Documenting Alsop's journey from playing the violin as an ambitious nine-year-old who longed to conduct, to attending Juilliard, to creating her own all-female string orchestra and swing band, to ultimately becoming music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Despite repeated rejection from the classical music establishment, Alsop persevered and blazed her own trail which gained her attention as a conductor and opened new opportunities for her that led to studying with legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. Featuring cinema verité scenes of Alsop conducting some of the world's great orchestras, the new PBS documentary, Great Performances: The Conductor, premieres Friday, March 25 at 9pm ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/gperf and the PBS Video app in celebration of Women's History Month.
Set to a carefully curated soundtrack, The Conductor tells Alsop's story through a combination of rehearsal and performance footage with her mentor Bernstein. The film takes an up-close look at the conductor through intimate interviews with music experts including Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra artistic director Arthur Nestrovski, Richmond City Orchestra music director Valentina Peleggi, wife Kristin Jurkscheit, members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and more.