First Woman Music Director for a Major US Orchestra Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun, 7/15 BALTIMORE -- Marin Alsop is to be the next music director of the Baltimore Symphony, according to the Baltimore Sun. She will succeed Yuri Temirkanov, who departs at the end of 2005-2006 after seven seasons with the orchestra. Alsop, 48, is former music director of the Colorado Symphony and currently in that post with the Bournemouth Symphony. A onetime protege of Leonard Bernstein, she has long been a podium favorite among British orchestras and music critics. Her new appointment is a major milestone for women conductors everywhere; she is certainly the first woman to hold the post with a major American ensemble. Alsop is also a proponent of American music, a genre in which the Baltimore Symphony specialized under Temirkanov's predecessor, David Zinman. Hopefully that repertoire will reappear in coming seasons. The Baltimore Symphony has an accumulated deficit of $10 million. Alsop's willingness to talk with media, patrons and audiences will no doubt help with funding and outreach issues. Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]