The Cincinnati May Festival announced on May 24 that conductor Marin Alsop will serve as Festival Director for the 2027 season, which runs May 17 through 30. Alsop succeeds soprano Julia Bullock, who held the role for the 2026 festival. The May Festival, founded in 1873, is the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western Hemisphere.

Alsop currently serves as artistic director and chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and holds principal guest conductor posts with both the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She is chief conductor of the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. In 2007, she became the first woman appointed music director of a major American orchestra when she took the podium at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She established the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship in 2002 to mentor women conductors and directs the graduate conducting program at the Peabody Institute.

Working with Matthew Swanson, the May Festival’s director of choruses, Alsop will curate programming around women’s voices throughout history. The 2027 festival will feature U.S. premieres from composers Anna Clyne and Roxanna Panufnik alongside works by Julia Wolfe, Beethoven, and Rimsky-Korsakov, with text by former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. “Marin’s unique amalgamation of innate creativity, advocacy for equity and enthusiasm for music will create a once-in-a-lifetime May Festival,” Swanson said.

Source: Cincinnati May Festival