LEONARD SLATKIN

CONDUCTOR | COMPOSER | AUTHOR

LEONARD SLATKIN

CONDUCTOR | COMPOSER | AUTHOR

LATEST NEWS

Leonard Slatkin Conducts World Premiere Commemorating WWI Armistice
By leonard slatkin
October 16, 2018

On Sunday, October 21 at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Leonard Slatkin will conduct the world premiere of Alexander Kastalsky’s epic 1917 work, Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes. The Kastalsky Requiem Project brings together the Clarion Choir, Kansas City Chorale, Chamber Choir of St. Tikhon’s Monastery, and Cathedral Choral Society to revive this piece.

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leonard slatkin
DSO and Leonard Slatkin Return to Orchestra Hall for Opening Weekend, Oct. 5-7
By leonard slatkin
September 28, 2018

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will kick off the 2018-19 Classical Series with concerts welcoming back Music Director Laureate Leonard Slatkin and featuring special guest violinist Gil Shaham. On the program is American composer Donald Erb’s The Seventh Trumpet, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Shaham as featured soloist), and Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations.

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JANUARY 2026

By leonard slatkin

We made it! Somehow, we managed to get through 2025 and are heading into the New Year with hopes that may or may not be dashed by the many variables in our lives now. But at least for this musician, the year ended on several notes of optimism contained within the piece I led in Tokyo.

The month started off in a city that I had never heard of, much less conducted in. Takasaki is located in the Gunma Prefecture, about an hour’s train ride from Tokyo Station. The Gunma Symphony Orchestra was kind enough to ask me to be part of its eightieth anniversary celebrations.

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, Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Artistic Consultant to the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and Artistic Advisor to the Nashville Symphony. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting and is active as a composer, author, and educator.

A six-time Grammy winner and recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has been awarded the Prix Charbonnier from the Federation of Alliances Françaises, Austria’s Decoration of Honor in Silver, and the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton. His debut book, Conducting Business (2012), for which he received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award, was followed by Leading Tones (2017) and Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21^st Century (2021). His latest books are Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Twentieth Century (spring 2024) and Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Nineteenth Century (fall 2024), part of an ongoing series of essays that supplement the score-study process, published by Bloomsbury.

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