As Marin Alsop prepares to retire from the Baltimore Sumphony Orchestra, she reflects on her conducting career

Though she arrived aglow with promising starts and early accolades (among them a 2005 MacArthur “genius” grant), Alsop’s tenure in Baltimore had a rocky start. At 48, she’d already led the Bournemouth Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the Eugene Symphony and the Long Island Philharmonic, but her appointment in 2005 to replace Yuri Temirkanov was initially and roundly rejected by the musicians, with seven orchestra members on the 21-member search committee issuing a statement: “Ninety percent of the orchestra musicians believe that ending the search process now, before we are sure the best candidate has been found, would be a disservice to the patrons of the BSO and all music lovers in Maryland.”