Marin Alsop keeps her parents’ instruments playing

About a year ago, conductor Marin Alsop experienced what she herself called a “nightmare double whammy” — the death of her mother, and then her father, within less than two weeks.

Both of her parents were string players, who owned fine old instruments.

As reported in the New York Times, Alsop has now found a way for those instruments to play on. She’s loaned them to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which she conducts. Alsop says that when she hears her parents’ violin and cello, “the sound is like their voice, in a way.” Read the full story here.