On February 20, Marin Alsop makes her debut conducting the Berlin Philharmonic at the orchestra’s Biennale, leading a premiere by Outi Tarkiainen alongside pieces by Brett Dean, Aaron Copland and Heitor Villa-Lobos on themes of nature and climate change. Last spring, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, but this next gig has the potential to be even more challenging. Alsop, whom John Adams described as having “a humble, generous, even self-effacing personality,” will meet an ensemble that is notoriously confident. I spoke with her on video chat about getting ready for the Philharmonic, the financial pressures on her Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the art of reading the room. 

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… has been an editor at VAN since 2015. He’s the author of The Life and Music of Gérard Grisey: Delirium and Form (Boydell & Brewer), and his journalism has appeared in The Baffler, the New York...