From his first season as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin has actively brought greater attention to the full spectrum of American music – new compositions, as well as works created in earlier eras.
“Leonard Slatkin - the newly installed music director of the National Symphony Orchestra - was wasting no time in getting his message across. That's the way it is in DC. You send messages, people listen. On Slatkin's opening night, they listened to Bernstein, Barber, Hanson, Baker and Ellington. That's 100 per cent home-grown produce. That's a message. By week three of the season, the tally of repertoire was 11 works, nine of them by Americans. Now that's not a message, that's a manifesto .”
So wrote London's Independent
This attention to the music of our country has brought him numerous honors. Perhaps most impressive are two that betoken a rare degree of bi-partisan accord: an evening at the White House during the Clinton administration honoring Mr. Slatkin and the National Symphony, and Mr. Slatkin's selection by President Bush for the National Medal of the Arts.
“At a time when many on the American musical scene are lamenting the relative paucity of rising American music directors at major orchestras, the institute is geared to help train young Americans to assume just such posts.”
So wrote The New York Times of the National Conducting Institute
The three-week Institute offers training in leadership, working with an orchestra administration, and making the crucial transition from academic or community orchestras to full-time professional orchestras. The idea grew from Mr. Slatkin's first engagements with major orchestras. “Those first experiences were terrifying,” he told The Washington Post, which went on to define conducting as “the most mysterious of musical vocations, demanding that a practitioner combine the attributes of coach, shaman, psychologist and traffic cop.”
“Slatkin is brilliant not only as a conductor but as an educator as well.”
The Washington Post
Composer Portraits, a unique initiative that combines Mr. Slatkin's gift for intriguing programming and his advocacy of music education, began in 2003. The first half of each Portrait consists of background on the life of the composer, written and narrated by Martin Goldsmith, and illustrated by Mr. Slatkin and the Orchestra with symphonic examples relevant to the events of the composer's life. The second half is then devoted to a single composition, which Mr. Slatkin precedes with examples. The evening ends with a free post-concert discussion for the audience and performers. The result is a distinctive evening enjoyable by all ages and all levels of knowledge.
“When conductor Leonard Slatkin gets an idea for a festival with his National Symphony Orchestra, you can count
on something hot.”
The Baltimore Sun
A hallmark of Leonard Slatkin's National Symphony programming has been the inclusion of Festivals as ways to draw attention to unusual repertoire. Highlights have included Journey to America: A Musical Immigration (2002), focusing on works by composers who came to the United States; Soundtracks: Music and Film (2003, with co-director John Williams); Piano 2000, with works for up to ten grand pianos; and a Beethoven Festival featuring Gustav Mahler's editions of the scores.
“Mr. Slatkin is renowned for his imaginative programming and passionate advocacy of American music.”
The Wall Street Journal.
Indeed, that has been borne out particularly in the area of commissions. The numbers are extraordinary: 62 new works by 57 American composers have been premiered. Two dozen orchestral compositions as well as cycles fanfares and encores are represented in those totals.  |
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts