By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Marin Alsop, one of the busiest orchestra conductors in the world - male or female - is surprised to think that she is still a rarity.

IF YOU GO

What: The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop, conductor; Timothy Lees and Gabriel Pegis, violin When: 7:30 p.m. today; 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Music Hall The program: Christopher Rouse's Rapture; Mozart's Concertone for Two Violins in C Major; Saint-Saens' "Organ" Symphony No. 3 Preconcert buffet: Today, starting at 6:15 p.m. Tickets: $13-$54; 381-3300 or Web site

"I was under this illusion that, certainly within 10 years of being in this career professionally, I would see an influx of women into this field," says Alsop, laureate conductor of the Colorado Symphony and music director of the Bournemouth (England) Symphony since 2002. "As I look around now, I still feel quite lonely. I'm surprised."

In a field that has always been dominated by white European males, this American woman is still marking firsts - recently, as the first woman ever named principal conductor of a major British orchestra. But, unfazed and down-to-earth, she is concentrating on the task at hand: a whirlwind spring tour, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra podium tonight through Saturday and conducting Leonard Bernstein's Candide with the New York Philharmonic in May.

"Sometimes I'm not sure which hotel room I'm in, but I find it inspiring and fun - there's an excitement to switching orchestras and repertoire," says the 47-year-old maestra, who favors a tailor-made Armani suit for conducting.

At the moment, she is also studying - sometimes on planes - John Adams' minimalist opera Nixon in China, a score she'll conduct for the first time in June, at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. "It's a great work," she says enthusiastically. "There's the political subtext, the music is stunning and it has that groove - so much rhythmic drive."

She's in a groove

Alsop knows how to find the groove in classical music. Like her onetime mentor, Leonard Bernstein, she is a passionate communicator, who honed her skills far beyond just leading the music during the decade that she headed the Colorado Symphony. Known for inventive programs and audience rapport, she often gives her listeners articulate, funny explanations about the music.

Being a music director "requires someone that's completely devoted to being an ambassador for the orchestra to the community, and for the composer to the audience," she says. "You're the main link between all of these elements. I do a lot of public speaking; I enjoy every aspect of the business, and that's what a good director should do - be involved."

When she guest-conducts, Alsop says she likes to mix things up, programming well-known music with a twist - in Cincinnati's case, the twist is Rapture by Christopher Rouse, an American composer she champions.

Everybody's favorite guest conductor - she regularly visits Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia - Alsop felt it was time to leave her post recently in Colorado "while we still all love each other," she says.

Besides, her European career was "going gangbusters." Between directing the Bournemouth Symphony, which performs sold-out concerts in nine cities throughout Southwest England, her recording schedule is packed. She was named Gramophone magazine's 2003 "Artist of the Year."

Music ambassador

She's become a kind of ambassador for American music. Her latest album, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and the film score to On the Waterfront with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, is irresistibly vivid. Three other CDs - music of Philip Glass, John Adams and Kurt Weill - are about to be released.

Is it hard to get a British orchestra to swing?

"Not any more," she says. "When I first started working in Britain 10 years ago, I had a sense that the swing feel was hard for them. But that's gone now, as they become more and more adept in doing American music."

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com