Leonard Slatkin

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Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author, and composer.

Early life and education

Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from Russian Empire regions that now have their roots in Ukraine. Felix Slatkin, violinist, conductor, and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet, as well as his mother, Eleanor Aller, was the cellist with the quartet. Frederick, a cellist, traced the family's name to Zlotkin and adopted the family's name as Zlotkin, a form of the family surname for him professionally. Frederick Zlotkin has outlined the family lineage as follows:

Slatkin attended Indiana University and Los Angeles City College before attending the Juilliard School, where he concentrated under Jean Morel. He has also attended the Aspen Music Festival and School with Walter Susskind.

Personal life

Slatkin has been married four times. His first three marriages, from Beth Gootee to Jerilyn Cohen, and finally to soprano Linda Hohenfeld, all ended in divorce. Daniel Slatkin, his son, has been with him from his marriage to Hohenfeld. On November 20, 2011, Slatkin married composer Cindy McTee. In 2018, they moved to Clayton, Missouri, in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton.

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Career

Slatkin's debut was in 1966, when he was appointed artistic director and conductor of the award-winning New York Youth Symphony, and in 1968 Walter Susskind named him assistant conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Slatkin performed on a weekly basis in St. Louis for three years, as part of the Slatkin Project. In 1977, he moved from St. Louis to New Orleans' music director.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he conducted a string of Beethoven festivals with the San Francisco Symphony. The orchestra's last concert in San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House in 1980, which featured a performance of Beethoven's ninth symphony, was held during June.

Slatkin, the music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, played in 1979. During his tenure, the orchestra's national profile soared, and the SLSO became one of the country's most popular orchestras. The ensemble toured and recorded regularly, delighting critics and audiences alike with its fine musicianship and innovative musical direction. He made the first digital stereo version of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker with the SLSO in 1985. (This was also the first complete Nutcracker to be sold on compact disc.) Slatkin was named the SLSO conductor Laureate after his tenure in 1996. On RCA Victor Red Seal, EMI, Vox Records, and Telarc, he was represented in his live appearance with that orchestra. During his time in St Louis, Slatkin devoted his time with the Cardinals baseball team and has remained a fan of the Cardinals ever since being fired from St Louis.

Slatkin was the artistic director of the Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Festival from 1990 to 1999. Slatkin served as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., from 1996 to 2008. Slatkin was praised for enhancing the overall quality of the orchestra and criticizing the NSO's under-rehearsal of twentieth-century American works. Slatkin was a guest conductor for the American Young Artists Orchestra.

Slatkin became the BBC Symphony Orchestra's chief conductor in 2000. He was only the second non-British person to perform the Last Night of the Proms in 2001 (the first had been an Australian, Sir Charles Mackerras). This performance took place in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and it included updates to the traditional second half of the festival, most notably a performance of the Barber Adagio for Strings in honor of the victims. This was his last night on September 11, 2004. Slatkin and the orchestra were reported to have "fostered a culture of control and recalcitrance," as well as negative concert evaluations, which contributed to his brief tenure with the BBCSO. Slatkin appeared on television from 1997 to 2000 and made a number of digital recordings for RCA with them, including Ralph Vaughan Williams' symphonies. The Los Angeles Philharmonic honoured him as the principal guest conductor at the Hollywood Bowl for a two-year period in 2004; he was later given a third year in the role, with his tenure ending in September 2007. In 2005, he became the principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London.

Slatkin was named the music advisor to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in 2006. He appeared at the inaugural concert of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center on September 9, 2006, in that capacity. Slatkin was confirmed as the next Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in June 2007, and he took over the role in 2008. The Jacobs School of Music announced the addition of Slatkin to the faculty at Indiana University as a part-time professor of conducting and composition on October 27, 2006.

Slatkin announced on October 7, 2007, that he had reached an agreement on a three-year contract and then a two-year contract to play as the new music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which would begin in 2008. Slatkin said he'd be moving to the Detroit area. In the 2008–2009 season, he appeared in 5 weeks of subscription concerts, including 13 weeks in the 2009–2010 season. In Detroit, Slatkin appeared as the music director for the first time in history. Slatkin's deal as music director began in February 2010 and will continue as orchestra director through the 2012–2013 season. Slatkin's salary cut was also revealed in this story to help solve the orchestra's financial challenges. The orchestra revealed in November 2011 that Slatkin's Detroit deal would continue through the 2015–2016 season. The DSO announced the extension of his deal until August 2017, the first year that the DSO goes year to year. Slatkin said that the estimated year-to-year portion of his deal did not mean he did not intend to resign, but that "it makes more sense to be flexible" at his age. "We're in the fun part right now," he continued. The DSO announced a contract extension for Slatkin's work as music director through the 2017–2018 season, ahead of his decision to resign the orchestra's music directorship and become the first-ever music director laureate, retaining the position at least until the 2020-2020 season. In his position as the music director laureate, he will plan and conduct four weeks a season as well as provide guidance on artistic and personnel issues. Slatkin has been credited with resurrecting the DSO after a six-month absence and raising it as a pillar of civic pride by innovative live webcasting and engaging community programming.

After Edgar Allan Poe's death, Slatkin's compositions include The Raven (1971) for narrator and orchestra, and Kinah (2015), an elegy dedicated to his parents' lives, which received its world premiere with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in December 2015. In 2012, he published Conducting Company: Unveiling the Mystere Behind the Maestro. Slatkin has released several recordings for the Naxos label, including the first commercial recording of William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, which received Grammy awards for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance.

Slatkin was hospitalized in the Netherlands on November 1, 2009. Slatkin was named as the Orchestre National de Lyon's music director in May 2010, which will begin in 2011-2012. He has released on the Naxos label, on the ONL, he has recorded works by Saint-Sans, Ravel, and Berlioz. Slatkin will step down as music director after the 2016–2017 season, and then assume the ONL's Directeur musical honoraire award.

A new radio show hosted by Slatkin, The Slatkin Shuffle, was announced on May 4, 2019. It was announced on April 1, 2020, on the Public Radio Exchange, and it would be available throughout the country.

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