Music Director

Marin Alsop, not one to do things by halves, will conduct the last concert of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's season Sunday afternoon and then plunge directly into the new, weeklong BSO Academy that will help amateur musicians get reconnected to their art by working with the pros. Lately, the orchestra's music director has been doubly active offstage, too, planting firmer roots in Baltimore — city and county. This season, Alsop settled into a condo she bought in a stylishly converted Mount Vernon church.

Moments after the 32-year-old former music director of West Baltimore's Bethel AME Church was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison for having sex with a 12-year-old parishioner, he collapsed in the courtroom, setting off a screaming match between two families that ended with the defendant's mother unresponsive and shaking on the hallway floor. Timothy D. Price III of Owings Mills was revived moments later and heard Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert B. Kershaw's final post-sentencing remarks about his conviction for second-degree rape of the girl.

Anne Harrigan, founding music director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, will step down from the podium in 2004. She will conduct the ensemble's 20th anniversary season (2002-2003) as scheduled, and continue as music director the following season, when candidates for the job will guest-conduct most of the concerts. "I've been thinking about doing this for a couple of years," Harrigan said from her home in Grand Rapids, Mich. "My daughter is going into kindergarten in the fall, and I decided it's time to devote more time and energy to my family.

In Tuesday's articles about the resignation of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conductor David Zinman, two photo captions contained incorrect information. In one, Harvey M. Meyerhoff was misidentified; in the other, the caption should have referred to Zinman's return from a sabbatical in September 1995.The Sun regrets the errors.David Zinman, the music director who is credited with transforming the Baltimore Symphony from a solid regional orchestra to one of international renown, announced yesterday that he would resign from his position when his contract expires in June 1998 -- at the end of the season.

Despite pleas by its musicians that it consider other candidates, the board of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra formally offered yesterday the post of music director to Marin Alsop, the principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in England, who would become the first woman to head a major American orchestra. The dispute between the BSO's administrators and musicians poses an immediate challenge to Alsop, 48, who is scheduled to sign a contract here today but faces daunting problems in winning the loyalty of the roughly 90-member orchestra.

Music director Yuri Temirkanov has agreed to stay with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra after his initial contract expires at the end of the 2002/2003 season on a year-to-year basis. Temirkanov and the BSO have settled on an "evergreen" agreement, a type that usually can be renewed - or canceled - with at least one year's notice. The arrangement, which is common in many major symphonies, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, ends months of speculation over the future of Temirkanov's association with the BSO, a partnership that has earned high praise for its artistic achievements.

Yuri Temirkanov, whose uncommon artistic depth and inspiring personality has guided the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to an exceptional level over the past four years, will step down as music director at the end of the 2005-2006 season. "It's time," the Russian-born conductor said yesterday, explaining his decision during a break in the final rehearsal for last night's season-opening concert. Speaking in English, rather than through his usual interpreter, Temirkanov added: "There have been some very good changes in the orchestra.

NOW THAT he has conducted his last concert as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore can take stock of David Zinman's contribution to this region's cultural life. It has been enormous.Mr. Zinman was an institution builder. He made the musical ensemble better and more versatile. He took an orchestra that some admirers said could not survive the loss of his predecessor, Sergiu Comissiona, and made it thrive.He took the orchestra to recording prominence with Grammy-winning performances.

Wait. Listen. You need to wait and listen for the applause at the beginning, said Nancy Rice of Baltimore, before the beginning of Marin Alsop's debut as music director-elect of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The opening applause will tell the story. "She will," Rice predicted, "receive an ovation. Baltimore has accepted her. The orchestra has accepted her." It's 15 minutes before curtain last night -- the night of Alsop's first engagement with the BSO since its announcement in July that Alsop would lead the orchestra beginning in the 2007-2008 season.

Two years after anticipation of her appointment caused a near-mutiny among its players, Marin Alsop made her official Charm City debut as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last night, receiving a standing ovation as the took the stage. The ovation was repeated, even more emphatically, at the conclusion of the concert. The audience seemed reluctant to leave.