Leonard Slatkin, National Symphony Music Director, has earned international acclaim for his leadership of the Orchestra. Wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “Slatkin belongs to the ranks of the great…This orchestra is in the middle of a great leap forward.” Nearer home, The Washington Post has written, “What a seamlessly virtuosic ensemble the NSO has become. Player for player, section for section, Washington has never known its like.”

The National Symphony Orchestra, therefore, has designated its Season Opening Ball Concert on September 26th in honor of Leonard Slatkin's 60th birthday.

Participating artists in the Season Opening Ball Concert will include pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Michel Camilo, flutist Sir James Galway, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, violinist Midori, conductor and violinist Itzhak Perlman, violinist Elmar Oliveira, conductor and composer Peter Schickele, pianists Jeffrey Siegel and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman, and conductor Murry Sidlin, in addition to the National Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor Emil de Cou.

The Season Opening Ball itself is chaired by Roger and Vicki Sant, and, in its new position at the beginning of the Kennedy Center season, launches the Washington autumn social calendar. Annually its patrons are drawn from the diplomatic corps, administration, business, media and social Washington.