"She Was First:" Marin Alsop featured on PBS

As the first American woman to lead a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria, and Great Britain, Marin Alsop is paving the way for other women to realize their leadership potential. Alsop joins host Soledad O'Brien on She Was First, as she conducts the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and teaches conducting to the next generation of trailblazers at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Institute.

She Was First is a docuseries that profiles pioneering women who have revolutionized the arts throughout history through an intimate look at their creative processes and fearless defiance of societal expectations.

“I'm hoping that as people see more and more women, and people of color, on the podiums, they'll start to have a broader sense of what a conductor can be,” Alsop says.

Watch the 26-minute documentary here, which traces the meteoric rise of the inspirational conductor, along with the challenges and hardships she faced, and continues to overcome, shattering many glass ceilings. #PurpleBaton