Arts & Entertainment

ON THE COVER

Leonard Slatkin will make his official debut as DSO music director in concerts to be performed Dec. 11-14.

Welcome In A Major Key

DSO is tuned up and ready for its All-American music director Leonard Slatkin.

Diana Lieberman

Special

I

to the Jewish News

n this era of terrible news, particu-
larly in the state of Michigan, the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra has
some very good news to report:
After three years without a music direc-
tor, Leonard Slatkin came on board this
fall; and all those associated with the
orchestra — musicians, board members,
audiences — are crazy about him.
According to DSO board member Penny
Blumenstein, Slatkin is "an amazing man."
"Many conductors are great at what they
do;' she said, "but not necessarily good
at reaching out to the community, to the
musicians. He is the whole package — a
great conductor and a people person, too.
"And if there ever was a time when we
need someone of his quality, personality
and abilities, it's now."
Her words are echoed by Laurie Landers

Goldman, a member of the orchestra's vio-
lin section. "He's a wonderful conductor;'
she said. "He'll bring everything we need
to the orchestra."
Slatkin conducts his first official con-
certs as music director Dec. 11-14 in
Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music
Center. The program includes Verdi's
Overture to La Forza del Destino and
Orff's Carmina Burana, along with the
premiere of A Different Soldier's Tale by
American composer James Lee III. The
DSO's 12th consecutive music director has
signed a three-year contract, beginning
with the 2008-2009 season. The contract
includes provisions for an extension, said
Anne Parsons, the orchestra's president
and executive director.
"And I want to say we have begun tak-
ing steps to extend already," Parsons said.
"This is a relationship that has taken off
from the very beginning."

Mutual Chemistry
For Slatkin, 64, the DSO is the latest in a
series of conducting, recording and teach-
ing positions that have won him inter-
national fame and a host of honors. In a
recent interview, he said this likely would
be his last long-term job as an orchestral
music director.
After leaving the National Symphony in
Washington, D.C., where had had served
as music director from 1996 through 2008,
he had not been sure he wanted the con-
tinuing commitment of a music director-
ship. Then he came to Detroit.
"I found in my visit last year, when I
conducted the DSO for the first time in 20
years, that there was a certain chemistry
between us; Slatkin said. "I knew pretty
much right away that I could be very
happy here."
The feeling was mutual. Said DSO board
member Peter Cummings: "After Leonard
was here in May of '07, I received e-mails

and phone calls from orchestra members
for the first time, begging us to hire him."
At that first concert, Slatkin found an
orchestra filled with first-class musicians
who were focused on what they do, said
DSO violist Glen Mellow. However, without
a music director since the 2003 retire-
ment of the venerated Neeme Jarvi, the
DSO lacked a coherent, thought-out vision.
"We needed a person who knew what he
wanted and how to go about getting it,"
Mellow said.
"The orchestra is thrilled," Mellow
added. "He is a very experienced, very
serious professional, who also happens to
be a nice guy."
Slatkin is the first American-born music
director hired by the Detroit Symphony in
more than 50 years and the third of Jewish
heritage, following Ossip Gabrilowitsch
(1918-1936) and Antal Dorati (1977-1981).

A Major Key on page C8

December 4 • 2008

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