1 00014)%40 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.