Leonard Slatkin
The American conductor Leonard Slatkin is a fixture of the U.S. symphonic scene, having conducted various major orchestras over his long career. He is noted for performance of American, Russian, and British music, and has been forthright among American conductors for championing the performance of American music.
Slatkin was born in Los Angeles on September 1, 1944. He came from a Ukrainian Jewish family whose name was Zlotkin; his brother Frederick, a cellist, has used that name professionally. Slatkin's father, Felix, was a film score composer and conductor as well as a founder of the Hollywood String Quartet, and his mother, Eleanor, was the quartet's cellist. Slatkin grew up with an excellent musical education, and, somewhat unusually, was exclusively American trained. He attended Indiana University's music school, Los Angeles City College, and later the Juilliard School in New York, studying with St. Louis Symphony music director Walter Susskind and Jean Morel.
His first conducting post was as assistant conductor of the St. Louis Symphony, and he advanced through several other posts before being named the orchestra's music director in 1979. Slatkin remained there for 17 years, issuing a large catalog of albums on Vox, EMI, and, for many years, the RCA label, including complete cycles of the symphonies of Elgar and Vaughan Williams; these earned numerous Grammy award nominations, and Slatkin has won six. In 1985, Slatkin led the St. Louis Symphony in the first recording of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker issued on compact disc. Beginning in 1992, he also served as director of the Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Music Festival, and in 1996 he moved from St. Louis to the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington. There, he took steps to restore the orchestra's mission of presenting American music. Slatkin moved to London as conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in 2000 and also served a principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic, but he continued to work in the U.S. during this period in posts at the Hollywood Bowl, the Nashville Symphony, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, where he was principal guest conductor.
The major post of the later part of Slatkin's career has been as music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where he shepherded the group through labor strife and a municipal bankruptcy. He stepped down as music director in 2018 but has remained active as music director laureate, continuing a series of recordings with the orchestra on the Naxos label. In 2019, he led the orchestra in a Naxos recording of Copland's ballet music that included the rarely heard early work Grohg; this recording was nominated for a Grammy Award. From 2011 to 2017, Slatkin served a music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon in France. He is also a composer and the author of a book, Conducting Business. In 2003, Slatkin received the U.S. National Medal of the Arts.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Haydn: Representation of Chaos & Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps & Ginastera: Popol Vuh
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 12 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 12 Jan 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fractured lines - Another set to - Silent cities ...
Symphonic Music - Released by Chandos on 1 Oct 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Russian Soldier's Song
The Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin
Classical - Released by Naxos on 11 Feb 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Sleeping Beauty (Ballet), Op. 66
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 27 Feb 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
William Walton: Belshazzar's Feast & Partita & Henry V: Two Pieces
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 28 Jan 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor , Op. 65
Classical - Released by RCA Records Label on 14 Nov 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 29 Sep 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 & The Love for 3 Oranges
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Christmas Celebration (Kathleen Battle Edition, Vol. 12)
Kathleen Battle, Boys Choir Of Harlem, New York Choral Artists, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Leonard Slatkin
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 19 Sep 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Op. 74 & Hamlet, Op. 67
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 & Romeo and Juliet & 1812 Overture
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Aug 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: Symphony No. 2 & Serenade, Op. 20
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jul 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 95, 97 & 101
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: Enigma Variations & Cockaigne & Froissart Overtures
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 17 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, The Isle of the Dead & Other Orchestral Works (Remastered 2024)
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin
Classical - Released by Vox on 1 Jan 1982
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn Symphonies 93, 99 & 100
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia Antartica & 5 Variants Of "Dives And Lazarus"
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 28 Mar 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: The Kingdom
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Nov 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 & Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo