The Conductor Great Performances : Season 49 Episode 11

Great Performances: 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 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Despite repeated rejection from the classical music establishment that thought only males could be conductors, 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 composer Leonard Bernstein.