October 25, 2019
The Manhattan School of Music honored Distinguished Visiting Artist Leonard Slatkin with a 75th birthday concert and celebration in Neidorff-Karpati Hall on Friday, October 18. The program highlighted works by four generations of Slatkin’s family, including A Soldier Song, written by Leonard’s great-uncle, conductor Modest Altschuler, who founded the Russian Symphony Orchestra in New York; three short works by his father, renowned conductor and violinist Felix Slatkin; and In Fields, a piece by his son, Daniel, who composes for film and television. The concert also featured an arrangement of the traditional folk tune Shenandoah by Leonard’s wife, Cindy McTee, with flutists Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway; and Leonard Slatkin’s composition The Raven, a setting of five poems by Edgar Allan Poe, with narration by esteemed actor Alec Baldwin. Leonard’s brother, Fred Zlotkin, was the soloist on Ravel’s Pièce en forme de habanera, which he performed on the instrument belonging to their mother, distinguished cellist Eleanor Aller.