The Challenge
In 2002, it was more likely that a woman could become the leader of a G7 nation or a four-star officer in the U.S. military, than become the conductor of a major American orchestra.
Twenty years later, these odds have improved due, in part, to the work of the TACF, but there is much more work to be done.
As of June 5, 2023, women run 10.4% of Fortune 500 businesses equally 52 female chief executives in total, an 18% rise from this time last year. Of the 193 member states of the United Nations, 13 countries have women serving as head of government (14%). Yet, only 9.2 percent of the world’s music directors are women, an orchestra’s top conducting job, barely up from 8.5 percent reported in 2006.
Less than 10% of conductors around the world are women.
The Response
In 1984, after hearing “girls can’t do that” and being rejected from conducting programs, Marin Alsop took her conducting career into her own hands and started a professional orchestra in New York City, the Concordia Orchestra. With the financial support of Tomio Taki, the Concordia Orchestra performed under the baton of Marin Alsop for 18 years. As Marin’s career took off and she began conducting around the world, Mr. Taki asked, “what about the other women conductors?” With Mr. Taki’s commitment to fostering talented women through active mentorship and Marin’s entrepreneurial spirit, the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship was created in 2002. In recognition of the historic achievements of its Founder and President, the Fellowship was renamed the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship (TACF) in 2019.
Over the past 20 years, the fellowship has provided intensive coaching, mentorship and financial support to aspiring female conductors. Today, all 36 recipients are working to ensure a more equitable future for classical music through their artistry and advocacy, and among them they hold 22 Music Director or chief conductor positions of orchestras around the world.
It is a privilege to be in a position to impact the lives of aspiring women conductors. I can clearly see what is needed to assist emerging conductors in the pursuit of their dreams and want to make the road easier and more rewarding for them. I have never ascribed to the philosophy that, ‘It was tough for me so it will be tough for you.’ My philosophy is: ‘It was tough for me so that I could make it easier for you.’
About The Fellowship
Learn how to apply.
The Taki Fellowship is currently a two-year award that primarily includes intensive coaching and mentoring with Marin Alsop and other music industry professionals. The TACF honorarium for Fellows is $25,000 over the two years; other awards are distributed on a merit basis. Since 2003, thirty-six women conductors have been chosen to participate in the program.
Learn about our Staff, Board, Advisory Council, and Women Leadership Council.
Mentoring Program
In 2022, The Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, with generous support from AT&T and the She’s Connected by AT&T initiative, launched its first Mentoring Program with the goal of mentoring 10 additional conductors each year. Now in its second year, the Fellowship has added 20 additional conductors to the TACF family and is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 Mentee cohort.
In addition to providing free mentoring to additional conductors, the Mentoring Program is providing Mentoring experience to TACF alumni conductors, expanding the TACF network of women conductors, and collecting research and data to create a mentoring model for the future.
To be able to be part of this program has been a huge inspiration for me. The fact that a personality like Marin, the mentors and all the people working to make this program possible, all of you with incredible busy agendas devotes time and energy to help young conductors in the beginning of the career creates heartwarming sense of hope and belonging to a community, which is particularly significant given the competitive and solitary nature of this profession.
–2022-2023 Mentee
As part of the AT&T collaboration, Alsop and Alexandra Arrieche (TACF 2011 Fellow) were featured in the She’s Connected campaign shared across digital and social platforms. Launched in 2020, She’s Connected showcases the multi-hyphenate nature of women in sports and mentorship. AT&T is taking action to address the inequality many women face by supporting them in and out of their respective professional fields. In doing so, AT&T deepens its commitment to women in sports and entertainment, as well as women in business through “She’s Connected by AT&T.”
Sabina Ahmed, Assistant Vice President of Sponsorships and Experiential Marketing at AT&T, elaborates:
“The AT&T She’s Connected program is proud to support the next generation of female conductors through the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Mentoring Program. Using our platform allows us to elevate women and create impactful change through mentorship now and in the future to help them achieve anything they aspire to accomplish.”
About Marin Alsop
A trailblazer and glass ceiling breaker, Marin Alsop has achieved numerous firsts for female conductors:
- First woman to become
- Music Director of a major American orchestra (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra),
- Brazilian orchestra (São Paulo Symphony Orchestra),
- Principal Conductor of a British orchestra (Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra) and,
- Chief Conductor of a Viennese orchestra (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra).
- In 2013 Marin was the first woman to conduct the Last night of the BBC Proms.
- She is the only conductor to receive the MacArthur Fellowship.
One of the foremost conductors of our time, Marin Alsop represents a powerful and inspiring voice. Convinced that music has the power to change lives, she is internationally recognized for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, deep commitment to education, and championing of music’s importance in the world. The first woman to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria and Britain, she is, as the New York Times put it, not only “a formidable musician and a powerful communicator” but also “a conductor with a vision.”
The 2023-24 season marks Alsop’s fifth as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, which she leads at Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, as well as on recordings, broadcasts and international tours; her first as Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony; and her first as Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. She also holds positions as Chief Conductor of the Ravinia Festival, where she curates and conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual summer residency, and as the first Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F) at the University of Maryland, where she launched a new academy for young conductors and leads the NOI+F Philharmonic each June.
A full decade after becoming the first female conductor of London’s Last Night of the Proms, Alsop made history again in September 2023, as both the first woman and the first American to guest conduct three Last Nights in the festival’s 128-year history. In spring 2024, she makes her company debut at the Metropolitan Opera, leading John Adams’s oratorio El Niño in a fully staged new production starring Julia Bullock and Davóne Tines. Other 2023-24 highlights include a new production of Bernstein’s Candide with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, an all-American program to inaugurate her four-season Philharmonia appointment, Penderecki’s seldom-heard opera The Black Mask with the Polish National Radio Symphony, and returns to the podiums of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
For Marin’s full biography, please go to her website here.
