Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Alsop & Sumino

“If I close my eyes, I can’t hear that you’re a woman.” The conductor Marin Alsop still remembers how the words of her beloved mentor Leonard Bernstein hit home. Much has changed in 35 years. As a pioneer in classical music circles, she has proved that gender is irrelevant on the conductor’s podium and carved out an inspiring career with the greatest orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. She will perform Brahms’ most mature symphony with them, the Fourth, in which he combines structures from the Baroque with the passion of Romanticism. The phenomenal Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino offers an interpretation of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto. On his YouTube channel, he guides a million followers through Gershwin, Super Mario, Chopin’s Etudes or his own Neoclassical compositions.