Author archive for leonard slatkin

  • JULY 2017

    It is very likely that those of you reading this want to know all about the Cliburn competition. Normally, I would have led with that, but on a more personal, as well as musical level, there was a more important day that took place for me.

    After six successful years, I led my final concert as music director of the ONL. That is not meant as a boast, but is simply a fact. When I first arrived in Lyon, the orchestra and its administration were facing a great deal of unrest. There was a controversy regarding a cancelled Japanese tour. The management was changing personnel, and the entire institution was under the threat of severe budget cuts.

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  • Leonard Slatkin’s Conducting School, Lesson Nine: The Use of Your Body to Indicate Dynamics

    June 15, 2017

    In this ninth installment of the Conducting School series, Maestro Slatkin delves into how the conductor conveys dramatic intensity and emotion by using the left hand and the rest of the body.

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  • JUNE 2017

    YEE-HAW!!!

    Greetings from Fort Worth, Texas, where I am serving as Chairman of the Jury for the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. But that opening yell was not just about yellow roses. As you will read later, it became the calling cry for my French orchestra.

    May started off with my next-to-last trip as music director of the ONL. It hardly feels as if six years have passed since I began my post in France’s second city. The time has flown by, and we have all accomplished a great deal together. Even with regime changes in our administration, we have all grown, and we enjoy a great reputation throughout the world.

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  • Slatkin Is Jury Chairman of the Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth

    May 25, 2017

    Widely considered one of the top music contests on the planet, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition attracts the best pianists ages 18 to 30. Leonard Slatkin serves as chairman of the jury that will evaluate 30 carefully selected competitors May 25 through June 10, 2017. For the first time, the entire competition will be streamed live to fans around the world.

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  • Leonard Slatkin’s Conducting School, Lesson Eight: Placement of the Orchestra

    May 15, 2017

    In this month’s conducting lesson, Maestro Slatkin explains the placement of instruments in the orchestra relative to the conductor’s position onstage.

    Future lessons will be posted here, and will also be available on his YouTube channel, on the 15th of every month.

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  • Slatkin and the DSO to Perform Beethoven’s Ninth

    May 13, 2017

    The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will perform two unforgettable works in a weekend of concerts conducted by Music Director Leonard Slatkin: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, including the famed “Ode to Joy” last movement, and John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man song cycle, inspired by the lyrics of Nobel Prize-winning musician and poet Bob Dylan.

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  • Orchestre National de Lyon Tours Germany and the Netherlands

    May 2, 2017

    The Orchestre National de Lyon is embarking on a tour of Germany and the Netherlands May 3-14 under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, with guest soloists Hilary Hahn performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and Cameron Carpenter playing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

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  • MAY 2017

    Extremely intense three weeks in the States, with a lot of hard work and results that made it all worthwhile.

    With only one day to recover from jet lag, I launched into Mahler’s 10th Symphony with the DSO. Most of you probably know that this is the work that was left incomplete, as the composer died while writing the piece. Never mind that he was superstitious about Beethoven’s death following the German master’s 9th; Mahler left enough information via sketches for several editors to try their hands at conjecturing what this last work might have sounded like.

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  • Pianist Michel Camilo Joins Slatkin and the DSO for Symphonic Jazz Concerts

    April 19, 2017

    Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra welcome pianist and composer Michel Camilo for a concert program that includes Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite No. 1 and Camilo’s own Triple Concerto, featuring a jazz trio comprising Camilo, bassist Ricky Rodriguez, and drummer Cliff Almond.

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  • Leonard Slatkin’s Conducting School, Lesson Seven: The Other Beats

    April 15, 2017

    In the April installment of Leonard Slatkin’s Conducting School, Maestro Slatkin delves into the technical aspects of the beat, expounding on how to deal with time signatures involving five, six, or seven beats per bar.

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