Leonard Slatkin

Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting throughout the world and is active as a composer, author and educator. Highlights of the 2018/19 season include the Kastalsky Requiem project commemorating the World War I Centennial, Penderecki’s 85th birthday celebration in Warsaw, five weeks in Asia leading orchestras in Guangzhou, Beijing, Osaka, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and the Manhattan School of Music’s 100th anniversary gala concert at Carnegie Hall. He will also conduct the Moscow Philharmonic, Balearic Islands Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Louisville Orchestra, Berner Symphonieorchester, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, RTÉ National Symphony in Ireland and Monte Carlo Symphony.

Slatkin has received six Grammy awards and 33 nominations. His recent Naxos recordings include works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, and Berlioz and music by Copland, Rachmaninov, Borzova, McTee and John Williams. In addition, he has recorded the complete Brahms, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky symphonies. He has conducted virtually all the leading orchestras in the world, and has held Music Directorships in New Orleans, St Louis, Washington, London (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra),Detroit and Lyon.

A recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honour, and has received Austria’s Decoration of Honour in Silver and the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton Award.