Abstract
Exclusive semileptonic B decays to the lightest excited charmed mesons are investigated at order
Λ
QCD
/
m
Q
in the heavy quark effective theory. At zero recoil,
Λ
QCD
/
m
Q
corrections to the matrix elements of the weak currents can be written in terms of the leading Isgur-Wise functions for the corresponding transition and meson mass splittings. The differential decay rates are predicted, including
Λ
QCD
/
m
Q
corrections with some model dependence away from zero recoil. Applications to B decay sum rules and factorization are presented.