"I had a great experience as a young
person:' Slatkin said. "I appreciate it
more now than I did when I was a kid.
Meeting all these people, having them at
our house, was wonderful. At the time, I
didn't realize it. I was too young."
A favorite family story involves Frank
Sinatra singing the young Leonard
Slatkin to sleep. "I don't remember it
myself — I was 6 or 7 months old. But I
do remember Uncle Frank was very good
to our family."
The Jewish presence in the film
and recording industry in Hollywood
was extensive, and Slatkin said he was
always conscious of his ethnic heritage.
Although he turned down the oppor-
tunity to study for a bar mitzvah, he
remembers the solemnity of his parents
playing the Kol Nidre at temple on Yom
Kippur and was moved by the experience
of saying Kaddish for his father, who died
when his older son was 19 years old.
"As I get a little bit older, I do think a
bit more about that part of my heritage
and still embrace a great deal of the phi-
losophy;' he said. "(Be the best person you
can while you are here; try to make an
impact on society and others. Those are
the values that guide my life — that I try
to instill in my son:'
Slatkin's younger brother, Frederick, a
cellist in New York, changed his last name
to Zlotkin to more closely approximate
the name of their paternal grandfather,
who had arrived from Belarus in 1913.
"We don't really know what our name
was. Fred might be closer to it:' Leonard
Slatkin said.
Slatkin's diverse background gave
him an eclectic musical appetite. As a
teenager, he played glockenspiel in his
high-school marching band and cocktail
piano in a bar; in the 1960s, he worked
part-time as a DJ at an underground
radio station.
"My background is quite diverse, in
terms of the kinds of music I grew up
with, so I was able to present a mixture
— rock, jazz, classics, blues, gospel —
whatever it happened to be he said. "I
tried to find some kinds of ways to mix
them up that made sense."
America's Conductor
The DSO's new, quintessentially
American music director is a perfect fit
with the wide-ranging mission of the
DSO, according to board member Dr.
Melvin Lester.
"I was one of those who supported hir-
ing an American conductor:' Dr. Lester
said. "You need to look out the window
and understand what the public wants.
The Detroit Symphony is not just about
traditional classical music. It's about
Slatkin found that when "I conducted the
DSO for the first time in 20 years, that
there was a certain chemistry between us."
The Detroit Sound
Slatkin admits that his life will, as usual, be hectic, "but I thrive on it."
jazz, pops, great youth symphony, young
people's programming that's appealing to
families.
"Leonard is_ motivated; he's a self-
starter, a risk-taker. He shows up at our
committee meetings; he says, `What can I
do? You want me to call somebody? Give
me the name.'
"He has all the qualities needed for the
position:' Dr. Lester said.
Although the Dec. 11 concert is
Slatkin's first official appearance on the
podium, the new music director has
been in town, meeting the public and
taking an active role in all aspects of
planning.
He has taken over hosting the DSO
radio broadcasts, as well as a new project
— a series of television programs set to
debut Jan. 3 on Detroit Public Television.
"He's so American; this guy;' said
Cummings.
"He even intends to throw out the
opening ball at a Tigers game." 0
The "Leonard Slatkin Era" begins with performances of Carmina Burana
Dec.11-14. Enter for your chance to win a four-pack of tickets to see Carmina
Burana by being the first to correctly answer the following trivia question:
"How many Grammys has Leonard Slatkin won?" Send entries to DSOdetroit®
gmail.com with your name, address, phone number and SLATKIN/Jewish News
in the subject line. All entries must be received no later than noon Monday,
Dec. 8.
As music director, Leonard Slatkin has
the task of creating what he calls "a
distinct sonic profile" for the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra.
"I want people to be able to say,
eventually, 'Aha, that's the Detroit
Symphony,' not just by looking at them,
but by identifying the sound," he told
the Jewish News.
The DSO has a step up on many
other performing institutions, he said,
because of "the lush and beautiful
acoustics" of Orchestra Hall. In addi-
tion, he is excited about the musicality
and what might be called the group
dynamic of the orchestra.
"They are already distinctive,
because of my various predecessors
and the orchestra itself," he said. "Even
without a music director for three
years, they have kept a real watch on
themselves."
The orchestra's basic point of depar-
ture must be the string section, he
said. "Otherwise, you're a band.
"Since I come from a background of
string players, I am especially sensitive
to string sonority. Next come the winds
and percussion – consider how they
blend in with the strings. I will be mess-
ing around with the stage setup a little
bit to see what we can do to achieve
maximum sonic profile."
In violin auditions last summer,
Slatkin looked for musicians who, in
addition to technical capability, would
blend in with his vision of the total
orchestral sound.
"You build a sonic profile the same
way you consider a visual profile; for
example, the way your home is deco-
rated," he said. "That's what I do with
sound."
- Diana Lieberman
-ember 4 0 2008
C9