LEONARD SLATKIN

CONDUCTOR | COMPOSER | AUTHOR

LEONARD SLATKIN

CONDUCTOR | COMPOSER | AUTHOR

LATEST NEWS

Detroit Symphony Orchestra Announces 2018-19 Season
By leonard slatkin
January 26, 2018

Slatkin, now in his 10th and final year as DSO music director, will return in 2018-19 as music director laureate to open the season with concerts featuring violinist Gil Shaham. He will return in Feb. to lead a three-week American Festival and will close the season in June with a program featuring pianist Makoto Ozone.

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Leonard Slatkin’s Conducting School, Lesson Sixteen: Putting It All Together, Part One
By leonard slatkin
January 15, 2018

In this month’s video, Maestro Slatkin offers an in-depth look at Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, explaining the study process a conductor uses to prepare for a performance of this masterwork.

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NOVEMBER 2023

By leonard slatkin

The road beckoned, and I travelled west and east for what I hoped would be lovely sets of concerts. That wish has so far come true, but the intrusions on beauty by events taking place at home and abroad prevented total immersion in the music.

Over and over, I kept wondering what those of us who practice our art in public could do as war broke out in Gaza. And as usual, there was no answer. Organizations and individual artists can make statements, but ultimately we are powerless to do much more than offer some sort of diversion for a little while to those who attend our performances. The audience comes to the concert hall or opera house to escape the outside world. And, to an even greater degree, so do my fellow musicians, who work tirelessly to get to the heart and soul of the music we play.

Leonard Slatkin

Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon, Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting throughout the world and is active as a composer, author, and educator.

A recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has received the Prix Charbonnier from the Federation of Alliances Françaises, Austria’s Decoration of Honor in Silver, the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton Award, and the 2013 ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award for his debut book, Conducting Business. His second book, Leading Tones: Reflections on Music, Musicians, and the Music Industry, was published by Amadeus Press in 2017, followed by Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21^st Century (2021). Two volumes of a new series comprising essays that supplement the score-study process are scheduled for release by Rowman & Littlefield in 2024. He is also working on several new compositions.

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