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44.4
Arts & Entertainment
ON THE COVER
A Major Key from page C5
On The
Podium
Hear the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra and Maestro Leonard
Slatkin Thursday-Sunday, Dec. 11-
14, at Orchestra Hall in the Max M.
Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward
Ave., in Detroit.
In his first official concerts as
music director, Slatkin will conduct
the DSO in the Overture to La Forza
del Destino, by Giuseppe Verdi, and
the choral blockbuster Carmina
Burana by Carl Orff. In line with
Slatkin's commitment to American
music, the program also includes
the world premiere of A Different
Soldier's Tale by American composer
James Lee III.
The orchestra will be joined by the
University Musical Society Choral
Union and the Ann Arbor Youth
Chorale. Soloists will be Mary Wilson,
soprano; Robert Baker, tenor; and
Hugh Russell, baritone.
Performances will take place 8
p.m. Thursday and Friday, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec.
11-14. Ticket prices range from $19
to $128.
For more information or to order
tickets, contact the DSO online at
www.detroitsymphony.com or by
phone at (313) 576-5111.
• In addition, Slatkin conducts the
Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra
at a free concert of holiday music
at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13. The
concert will feature selections
from his newly published Holidays
for Piano and Strings, a collection
of arrangements for middle-school
pianists and orchestra.
Piano soloists, all students at
Detroit-area middle schools, were
selected through a competi-
tion sponsored by the DSO and
the Michigan Music Teachers
Association.
• Upcoming Slatkin-conducted
concerts this season include
"Americans Here and Abroad,"
Jan. 9-11; "From Russia With Love,"
Jan. 15-18; "Slatkin & Boisvert,"
April 2-4; and "Slatkin & Mahler,"
April 23-25.
- Diana Lieberman
C8
December 4 • 2008
Top: Leonard Slatkin's parents, Hollywood musicians Felix and Eleanor Aller
Slatkin, in the 1940s. "I had a great experience as a young person," Slatkin said.
Above left: An early childhood photo of brothers Fred Zlotkin (a cellist who changed
his name to more closely approximate the original) and Leonard Slatkin.
Above right: Conductor Leonard Slatkin in a photo from the 1970s: His longest
professional association has been with the St. Louis Symphony.
DSO Launches TV Series
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will hit the airwaves in January with a new
series titled Making Music with the DSO.
The 30-minute program, a co-production of the DSO and Detroit Public
Television made possible by a grant from DSO Board Member Stanley Frankel,
will feature 12 episodes; each will focus on a different aspect of the art of mak-
ing music. Host Leonard Slatkin, DSO music director, will take viewers behind
the scenes with the orchestra to discover all that goes into creating a world-
class symphony. The show will go beyond classical to show how other genres of
music relate to the classical idiom.
Local and world-famous teachers, performers and other experts will join DSO
musicians and Detroit-area music students in interviews and performances.
- Diana Lieberman
Making Music with the DSO will be aired Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. and Sundays
at 3 p.m. on Detroit Public Television-Channel 56 beginning Jan. 3.
Balancing Act
Slatkin's longest professional association
has been with the St. Louis Symphony. He
started in 1968 as an assistant conductor,
held various associate conductor jobs and
became music director in 1979. On leaving
the orchestra in 1996, he was named con-
ductor laureate.
While leading the National Symphony,
he also served as chief conductor of
London's BBC Symphony Orchestra from
2000-2004. Also on his resume are multi-
year contracts as conductor, principal
guest conductor or music adviser with
major orchestras in Cleveland, Minnesota,
New Orleans, Los Angeles and London, as
well as guest conducting gigs with many
of the world's great orchestras, from Paris
to Berlin to Tokyo.
He has made more than 100 record-
ings, earning five Grammy Awards, and
worked with student and youth orchestras
throughout the world.
In 2003, he received the National Medal
of Arts, the highest award given to artists
by the U.S. government.
Although the position with the DSO
will be his primary job, Slatkin also will
serve as principal guest conductor of the
Pittsburgh Symphony and the London
Philharmonic. He will continue to guest
conduct throughout the world and to
teach at Indiana University two weeks a
year.
Another new endeavor is a series of
music arranged for young pianists and
string players. Slatkin was inspired to
write the arrangements by his son, Daniel,
a 14-year-old who enjoys playing piano.
The first set of arrangements, Holidays
for Piano and Strings, was published last
summer; two more volumes are in the
works.
Maintaining a close relationship with
Daniel, Slatkin's son with his recently
divorced wife, soprano Linda Hohenfeld,
is an important priority. Daniel will attend
school in suburban Boston, while his
father plans to move to Metro Detroit in
the early spring.
Slatkin admits that his life will, as usual,
be hectic, "but I thrive on it."
Hollywood Roots
Slatkin grew up in Los Angeles, where he
had a front-row seat in a thriving musical
community.
Both of his parents — cellist Eleanor
Aller Slatkin and violinist, conductor
and arranger Felix Slatkin — were much
in demand in the movie industry. They
spent their evenings playing chamber
music with the Hollywood String Quartet,
which won a Grammy Award in 1958 for
its performance of Beethoven's late string
quartets.