LEONARD SLATKIN

CONDUCTOR | COMPOSER | AUTHOR

LEONARD SLATKIN

CONDUCTOR | COMPOSER | AUTHOR

LATEST NEWS

Leonard Slatkin’s Conducting School, Lesson Thirteen: Stop and Hold
By leonard slatkin
October 15, 2017

In October’s conducting lesson, Maestro Slatkin addresses how to cut off the orchestra. He also introduces the fermata symbol and its effect on the ending of a piece, using score examples from Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony.

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leonard slatkin
Screening of “Samuel Barber, Absolute Beauty,” Featuring Leonard Slatkin
By leonard slatkin
October 10, 2017

Maestro Slatkin will attend a screening of the new documentary Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty, in which he is featured, at the Royal Starr Film Festival at Emagine Royal Oak on Saturday, October 14, at 1 p.m. After the film he will participate in a Q&A session with the filmmaker and sign copies of Leading Tones.

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leonard slatkin

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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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