Leonard Slatkin

Leonard Slatkin is music director of the Nashville Symphony, conductor laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, music director laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, honorary music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon, and principal guest conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting and is active as a composer, author, and educator.

His 2026-27 season includes engagements with orchestras across the United States, Europe, and beyond, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and New World Symphony. Slatkin has received six Grammy Awards and 35 nominations. His most recent recording, Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak, was released on Warner Classics in 2026. Naxos has reissued audiophile editions of his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra recordings featuring works of Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev, as well as Slatkin Conducts Slatkin and recordings of works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Berlioz, Copland, and others.

A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Slatkin holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor and has been awarded the Lincoln Medal from Ford's Theatre Society and the League of American Orchestras' Gold Baton. His books include Conducting Business (2012), Leading Tones (2017), Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st Century (2021), and two volumes of Eight Symphonic Masterworks, with a further volume forthcoming from Bloomsbury in February 2027.