Arts & Entertainment

About
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Conductor Leonard Slatkin

Slatkin Returns

Following an acclaimed series of concerts
with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in
May, internationally renowned American
conductor Leonard Slatkin returns to lead
the DSO's opening weekend of concerts at
Meadow Brook Music Festival this week-
end. He replaces previously scheduled
Resident Conductor Thomas Wilkins.
There is speculation that Slatkin's quick
return to conduct signals an interest that
he may become one of the contenders to
succeed Neeme Jarvi as music director of
the DSO.
Slatkin will demonstrate his unique
versatility on the podium in two very dif-

ferent Meadow Brook
the 2008-09 season. He
programs.
also recently accepted
At 8 p.m. Saturday,
the position of music
July 28, he'll helm an
adviser to the Nashville
"All Beethoven" eve-
Symphony.
ning featuring some
Slatkin's more than
•
of the composer's
100 recordings have
Gail Zimmerman
greatest works,
been recognized with
Arts Editor
including his Seventh
five Grammy Awards
Symphony, the
and more than 50 other
Fidelio Overture and Piano Concerto No. 3
Grammy nominations. He also is the found-
with soloist Janina Fialkowska.
er and director of the National Conducting
The following night, Sunday, July 29,
Institute, an advanced career development
at 7:30 p.m., Slatkin and the DSO will be
program for rising conductors.
joined by the von Trapp Children in The
Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a
Hills Are Alive with the Von Trapps, a con-
distinguished musical family; his par-
cert for fans of all ages showcasing music
ents were the conductor-violinist Felix
from the classic film The Sound of Music.
Slatkin and cellist Eleanor Aller, founding
The von Trapp Children have recorded
members of the famed Hollywood String
three albums and an a cappella album is
Quartet. Felix Slatkin was Frank Sinatra's
currently in the planning stage. They have
concertmaster and "conductor of choice"
a film coming out in December.
during Sinatra's Capitol years of the 1950s.
Slatkin, 62, is music director of the
Leonard Slatkin began his musical stud-
National Symphony Orchestra, prin-
ies on the violin and studied conducting
cipal guest conductor of the Royal
with his father, followed by Walter Susskind
Philharmonic Orchestra in London and
at Aspen and Jean Morel at the Juilliard
principal guest conductor of the Los
School. He is married to soprano Linda
Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood
Hohenfeld, and they have one son, Daniel.
Bowl. Last month, it was announced that
Slatkin's brother, cellist Frederick Zlotkin,
he will be principal guest conductor of
performs and teaches using the original
the Pittsburgh Symphony, beginning in
Russian spelling of the family name.

The DSO performs a second weekend
of concerts at Meadow Brook Music
Festival Aug. 3-5. At 7:30 p.m. Friday,
Arild Remmereit will conduct the DSO
in some of classical music's most famous
works. At 8 p.m. Saturday, conductor
Christoph Campestrini will lead the DSO
in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and in a
performance of the late Michigan corn-
poser Elaine Lebenbom's Gamatria; at
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Campestrini helms a
"Tchaikovsky Spectacular" featuring the
1812 Overture and the Violin Concerto in D
major with teenage soloist Elena Urioste,
winner of the 2007 Sphinx Competition.
Tickets range from $15 on the lawn to
$50 in the pavilion. (248) 645-6666. Special
group discounts are available by calling the
group sales office at (248) 371-2055.

Stepsisters' Story

The Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival
and the Jewish Gay Network of Michigan
will host Lover Other: The Story of
Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore 7
p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1, at the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit in West Bloomfield.
The film is being shown as part of the
JGN's Paramount Bank Twice Blessed

WS

-
Mau-

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Flitter Flatter

1 11

44

Josh Flitter, 12, is one of the hot-
test child actors around. Critics have
called him "charm-
ing, funny and natu-
ral."
Josh made his
film debut as Shia
LaBeouf's caddy in
the 2005 golf movie
The Greatest Game
Josh Flitter
Ever Played. This
year, he co-stars
in the recently released films Nancy
Drew (as Corky, Nancy's sidekick) and
License to Wed (as Robin Williams'
sidekick).
Flitter was just cast as the star of
the third Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
movie. The premise is that the teen-
age son (Flitter) of the original Ace
Ventura follows in his father's foot-
steps and sets himself up as a pet
detective. Filming starts next year.
The Newark Star Ledger recently
profiled Josh, who lives with his par-

July 26 m 2007

ents and an older brother in a New
Jersey suburb. The newspaper article
describes Josh as a pretty normal kid,
except for the fact he's been acting in
TV shows and commercials since he
was 5.
Josh likes to play hockey in his
driveway, hang out with friends and
play with his dogs. The Ledger also
reported that Josh is very busy get-
ting ready for his bar mitzvah (he
turns 13 next month).

Bea Season

Bea Arthur, 85, is a guest star on the
new TV Land series Back to the Grind.
In this reality series-
type show, TV stars
of the '70s and early
'80s get to do their
characters' jobs for
real.
Arthur, the for-
mer star of Maude
Bea Arthur
and The Golden
Girls, appears in the
Aug. 8 episode tutoring real high-
school students for their SAT exams.
(Arthur's character on The Golden

Girls worked part time as a tutor.)
Episodes of Back to the Grind air

Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. and also
can also be viewed on the TV Land
Web site at www.tvland.com .
Arthur, long a Broadway musical
star, became an unlikely TV celebrity
in 1972 when producer-writer Norman
Lear tapped her to
star in Maude as a
fiercely liberal, any-
thing but demure
housewife. Maude
was a spin-off of

All in the Family,

which Lear also cre-
ated. Lear's other
hits include Good
Times, One Day at a Time and The

Norman Lear

Jeffersons.

Apparently the new head of NBC
programming thinks Lear still has
some magic. He coaxed the producer
out of retirement to create a new TV
show that just has been put on the
NBC schedule as a midseason replace-
ment. The yet-unnamed show will be
a "dramedy about a single mother
re-entering the work force." Lear cel-

ebrates his 85th birthday on July 27.

In & Out

Shiri Appleby, 28, has got her mojo
going. Following her sexy guest
appearances on the TV show Six
Degrees, there's now news that
Appleby will star in the upcoming USA
cable network series
To Love and Die. The
12-part show will
begin in 2008.
Appleby, 28, plays
a "sassy young
woman" who seeks
out the father (Tim
Shiri Appleby
Matheson) she
has never known.
She finds him — only to discover he
is a contract killer. Shockingly, she
becomes a contract killer, too, and
discovers she has a real knack for
the job. Meanwhile, her oft-married
mother (Frances Fisher) interferes in
Appleby's messy romantic life.
Will the daring premise of To Love
and Die turn viewers off? Stay tuned.
Mandy Patinkin, 54, has decided
not to return next fall as the star of

