Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor.
Slatkin was born in Los Angeles, California into a musical family - his father was the violinist, conductor and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet, Felix Slatkin, and his mother was Eleanor Aller, the cellist with the quartet.
He studied at Indiana University and Los Angeles City College before attending the Juilliard School where he studied conducting under Jean Paul Morel. His conducting debut came in 1966, and in 1968 he was made an assistant conductor at the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He stayed there until 1977, when he was made conductor of the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra.
Slatkin returned to St Louis in 1979 as music director of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra. The national profile of the orchestra increased notably under his tenure. In 1985, he recorded the first digital stereo version of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker with the SLSO. He remained there until 1996, and is now SLSO's Conductor Laureate. He was the director of the Blossom Festival of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1990-1999. In 1996, Slatkin took over the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and his tenure with the National Symphony will conclude in 2008. In 2006, he was named the music advisor to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (Tennessee). In that capacity, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center on September 9, 2006.
In 2000, he became the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which post he discharged until 11 September 2004, the 110th Last Night of the Proms. In 2001, he was the first non-British person to conduct the Last Night. Previously in the UK, Slatkin was principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra from 1997-2000. In 2005, he became the principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London.
Slatkin has conducted a wide range of repertoire, being particularly noted for his interpretations of 20th century American music, and works by British composers. His compositions, which include The Raven for narrator and orchestra (after the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, 1971), are little known.
In 1990, Leonard Slatkin was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. On October 27th, 2006, the Jacobs School of Music announced that Slatkin will be joining the faculty at Indiana University where he will teach conducting and composition part-time.
Slatkin has been married three times. He and his third wife, soprano Linda Hohenfeld, have a son, Daniel.
Trivia
Slatkin is a big fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. He said that one of his biggest regrets in leaving the St. Louis Symphony to become conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra would be that he would no longer be able to attend Cardinals games.