Matt Roth for The New York Times Marin Alsop.The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced on Tuesday that Marin Alsop, the orchestra’s music director since 2007, has signed a new contract that will keep her on the ensemble’s podium until 2021. Ms. Alsop, 56, is also the music director of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, which upgraded her title from principal conductor this month.
During her tenure so far, Ms. Alsop has been credited with starting several programs that extend the orchestra’s mission in Baltimore, including OrchKids, a youth orchestra that, like the Venezuelan El Sistema, which inspired it, offers music lessons, tutoring and meals at no cost to the 600 children who participate in it. She also started Rusty Musicians, a program in which adult amateur musicians work prepare performances with Baltimore Symphony players.
She has also helped improve the orchestra’s box office performance. According to the orchestra, in the season before Ms. Alsop took the ensemble’s reins, the orchestra was selling, on average, 58 percent of its seats at the  Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and 77 percent of its seats at the Music Center at Strathmore. Last season, ticket sales had risen to 70 perecent at Meyerhoff and 80 percent at Strathmore.
Earlier this month, Ms. Alsop sprained her wrist while in São Paulo to conduct her other ensemble, and was forced to bow out of the engagement. Laura Farmer, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Symphony said that “everything is going well with the recovery, and Marin is due to resume her full conducting schedule very soon.†That schedule includes two BBC Proms concerts in London. She will be the first woman to lead the Last Night at the Proms, the celebratory conclusion of that important summer series.
