Leonard with wife Cindy and son Daniel; Aspen, 2013
Cindy McTee Slatkin
Dearest Leonard,
Happy birthday, and congratulations on packing 16 decades of work and play into 8! You have always lived life to the absolute fullest.
Throughout our 15 years together, we have had the pleasure of sharing music, travel, teaching, and much more. Now, I look forward to an abundance of comparable tomorrows, sustained by your boundless energy and appetite for adventure, whether on the back of a burro in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, in an off-road vehicle traversing the Tanzanian Serengeti, or conducting performances of all four Charles Ives symphonies in a single day!
I love and cherish you, dear Leonard, and I join our family and friends in celebrating your birthday and your prodigious gifts, evident at a very early age, as this photo attests! Cindy
Daniel Slatkin
Dad, it’s your birthday. Thank you for sharing with me the many joys of music and baseball, the many groans of music and baseball, and most importantly, how to find the best sushi place in town. You have a 50 year head start on me, so I have some catching up to do, but your enthusiasm toward guiding me over the years hasn’t aged a day. I am so fortunate to call you Dad, and hope you have a wonderful day.
With love, Daniel.
Emanuel Ax
Dear Lennie,
What a privilege it has been to be part of your musical life for all these many years! Your deep musicality, all encompassing knowledge, and above all, your personal care and empathy for all who know you has been a shining example to me and to the entire community of musicians. You have created a legacy of excellence and beauty wherever you have been and we are all grateful for your presence. I can only wish you to keep doing your wonderful work on the podium and with your writer’s pen for many more fruitful, happy and healthful years.
With love and admiration always,
Your old friend, Manny
William Bolcom & Joan Morris
Leonard Slatkin raised the St. Louis Symphony to world-class level. He premiered and illuminated much new music—so Bravissimo, Leonard, and Happy 80th!!
Much love from Joan and Bill.
Stephen Bryant
Leonard is a great conductor, of course and a brilliant and collaborative musician, but also a kind, fair and generous man … a rare combination! Happy 80th birthday Leonard!! Stephen (leader, BBC Symphony Orchestra).
Chamber Music Society of St. Louis
Dear Leonard,
We send you best wishes for a very Happy Birthday and or gratitude for all your contributions and leadership to the world of music and music education.
Marc and Susan Gordon
John Corigliano
I’d like to claim that Leonard’s protean conducting, impassioned advocacy, and warm friendship were mine alone to enjoy; but the reality is that I am but one of a richly varied cohort of composers, past and present, whose work Leonard has so eloquently interpreted on and off the podium. Over the past six decades, American music has had no greater avatar than Leonard Slatkin; it’s a privilege, as well as a delight, to salute him on this milestone birthday.
Rob Cowan
Leonard Slatkin is a hugely capable conductor whose performances mirror the quality of whichever orchestra is in his charge for the occasion, which invariably means extra Brownie points in St. Louis and Detroit. Repertoire-wise Tchaikovsky ballets and Vaughan Williams symphonies have been handsomely served but no music has benefited more from the Slatkin touch than the twentieth century American symphony, music which sits squarely at the centre of his imagination and emerges with enormous conviction, Copland’s Third (two recordings), William Schuman’s Tenth and Slatkin’s own The Raven being high points.
JoAnn Falletta
The Buffalo Philharmonic family – and I personally – wish Maestro Leonard Slatkin a very happy 80th birthday! Leonard not only represents the very best in music making and artistic scholarship, he has become a shining icon to all conductors who came of age in the time of his inspiring presence.
Leonard taught us how to study, how to explore, how to learn. He shared his respect and love of musicians, his deep devotion to music, and his fearless dedication to excellence. His writings are profound, funny and insightful and his generosity to young conductors and composers is legendary. Leonard is a universally loved Maestro and we are privileged to add our voices to the many thousands who celebrate his milestone birthday.
To our ‘once and future Maestro’ with love,
JoAnn and the Buffalo Philharmonic.
Tony Faulkner
Many Happiest Returns Leonard! We worked together first 38 years ago, on August 30th / 31st 1986 just before your 42nd birthday, with the LSO at Henry Wood Hall, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Barry Douglas. Barry had just returned from winning the gold medal outright in the International Tchaikovsky Competition.
Congratulations on 60 years of invaluable service to the world of music as a conductor. The last time we met was a surprise in Tokyo for both of us, when you were rehearsing with the NHK Orchestra and Steven Isserlis, and I enjoyed your typical very hospitable welcome very much. London has been a regular destination for your musicmaking and we look forward very much to your next visit.
David Halen
Celebrating Leonard Slatkin’s 80th birthday is especially significant given his immense contribution to American orchestral music. For me, the last thirty-five years knowing and working with him has been an incredible highlight of my musical life. David Halen (concertmaster, Saint Louis Symphony).
Sir Stephen Hough
It’s always a shock when a big round birthday number is placed next to an energetically youthful musician. This is pointedly the case with Leonard Slatkin – one of the brightest, most inquisitive minds, not to mention attentive, supportive concerto collaborators, in the business. Happy birthday, dear Leonard!
Paul Hughes
In reading that you are about to reach such a magnificent birthday, I found myself thinking back to some amazing concerts and recordings we made together during your time at BBCSO. To have recorded the complete Bernstein Symphonies was an absolute pleasure, but perhaps my greatest privilege was to witness your masterful handling of the Last Night of the Proms, just a week after the terrible events of ‘9/11’. That time, those events, will always be indelibly part of my memories of working with you, and I thank you for all the music making. Happy 80th birthday dear Leonard.
Gordon Hunt
My first experience playing with Leonard Slatkin conducting was many decades ago.
His musical knowledge, expertise and dedication have always been very impressive, and so there were many rewarding concerts.
Last year, I played in the orchestra for the Taipei Music Academy and Festival (TMAF) which Leonard was conducting. It was great to see him again after a long time, and to be reminded of his musicianship – and his sense of humour!
I send congratulations and best wishes for his 80th birthday.
Leonard recently returned to Taipei (TMAF), including to conduct, three times, a programme of Brahms, Elgar and Dvořák, and he writes about it here:
Steven Isserlis
A very happy 80th to you, dear Leonard. And many thanks for your indefatigable
championship of so much music (so many works that we wouldn’t know were it not
for you), your tireless pursuit, and achievement, of high standards; and your absolute
refusal to become a pretentious prima donna! Your attitude to the whole world of
music-making is as refreshing as it is genuine. I – and we all – am/are truly grateful
to you; and wish you another wonderful decade of musical achievements, excellent
health and personal happiness.
Edward Johnson
In sending Leonard heartfelt Birthday Greetings, I’m reminded that about three decades ago, when I first met him, I revealed I was something of an orchestral transcriptions freak – thank you, Mr. Stokowski! – and found that Leonard was also interested in orchestral arrangements. One thing led to another and the result was a sold-out Prom in 1991 in which Leonard presented a colourful version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in which all the promenades and pictures were by different arrangers. I was also delighted when he took up my suggestion of recording some Bach Transcriptions that were generally little known and this resulted in two Chandos CDs – one devoted to composers’ arrangements and the other to conductors’ – both of which were splendidly played and highly successful. Nor must we forget Leonard’s own Brahmsiana, a suite of assorted pieces which he imaginatively orchestrated in tribute to the composer.
In short, with all these delicious orchestral delights in mind, Happy Birthday, Leonard!
Andrew Keener
It was early in 1987 that Dolly Williamson, RCA’s much-missed A&R presence in London, called to ask whether I was free to produce Leonard’s recording of The Kingdom later that year. Slatkin and Elgar? Surely, I reflected, that wasn’t this conductor’s ‘thing’. How lamentably ignorant. Leonard’s credentials and experience in British music, right back through his distinguished years as Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony, were there for all to hear had I taken the trouble to look and listen. The sessions in Abbey Road Studio 1 were an ear-opener. Here, straightaway, was someone who brought freshness and absence of pre-conception to this music and who loved and understood its soul and sound world. The sessions were the first of many I was lucky to produce for this open-minded musician. Studio-wise too – unsurprising, given his family pedigree. In quick succession (this was the era of plenty in orchestral sessions!) there followed, among much else, the Vaughan Williams symphonies, the first of Walton’s, both of Elgar’s, the Enigma Variations, Froissart, Cockaigne, and the cello concertos by Elgar and Walton with Janos Starker. Never a time-waster in the studio, Leonard ensured a typically early finish of the latter recording, enabling conductor and soloist to disappear into a room with an upright piano upstairs at Abbey Road and rehearse Delius’s Caprice and Elegy, emerging to record it and revive memories of the famous 1950s recording of the work by cellist Eleanor Aller and conductor Felix Slatkin – Leonard’s parents. Sessions of Haydn’s London symphonies also revealed an animated and stylish interpreter of this repertoire.
So now, this year, Leonard is 80. Unbelievable. His appetite and curiosity for music, old and new, across genres, remains that of someone less than half his age. Selfishly, I lament that his full schedule these days takes him to places other than the UK. It’s our loss. Many happy returns, Leonard!
Andrew Litton
Happy 80th Birthday, Leonard! The only way for me to fathom that you have reached this milestone is to reflect on the decades of profound influence your conducting and musicianship have made on the rest of us. Thanks for all your inspiring insights into the pursuit of musical excellence! Your honesty and integrity combined with your scholarly research and tireless teaching have made a huge impact. Perhaps, the most rewarding reason for me to celebrate your special day, is that after decades of inspiring me, I can now also call you my friend.
Many happy, healthy returns!
Andrew Marriner
I send Leonard congratulations on his remarkable career and 80th birthday.
Garrick Ohlsson
To my wonderful friend and colleague Leonard Slatkin, with whom I’ve had the joy of some of my life’s most memorable music-making collaborations. Happy 80th Birthday! Garrick
John Pattrick
Dear Leonard,
Many congratulations on your 80th birthday. Going back, we first met probably in 1984 when I was at Capitol Records in Los Angeles and together with Brown Meggs, we planned out the initial stages of Angel’s ‘Americana’ series which kicked off with Copland’s ‘Billy the Kid’ with your orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony. I vividly remember sitting in Powell Hall’s control room in October 1985 with Marc (Aubort) and Joanna (Nickrenz) listening to the wonderful sounds you drew from the orchestra and as you may remember that recording was a critical and commercial hit despite your concerns at the time about venturing onto Lennie Bernstein’s turf! You have contributed and brought so much knowledge and pleasure to the classical music world over the years. Enjoy this special time, you have so deserved it!
John Pattrick
Joseph Phibbs
To Leonard,
Sending my warmest wishes on your 80th birthday, and with gratitude always for the support and encouragement you gave me during your time at BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Joseph
An excerpt (only, unfortunately) from Phibbs’s In Camera. UK premiere – BBCSO/Slatkin; 2001, Barbican Centre.
Brian Pidgeon
Happy Birthday Leonard and many congratulations on reaching the milestone of your 80th!! I remember so well your birthday in 1998 when you were in Manchester recording the excerpts for a series of Radio 3’s Discovering Music programmes with the BBC Philharmonic. Furthermore, you recorded the entire narration without the necessity of a script – much to everyone’s total amazement!
Have a wonderful celebration.
Brian Pidgeon (General Manager BBC Philharmonic 1991-2004, and Chandos recording producer)
José Serebrier
To try to put in a few words a description of Leonard Slatkin’s countless accomplishments would take a book, rather than an article. It is my humble privilege to contribute to this compilation of tributes with a modest synthesis.
Maestro Slatkin is music personified. Just recently I attended a concert he conducted with a student orchestra in New York, and my admiration grew to a new level, as he managed to make them sound like a major professional orchestra. Seemingly simple gestures and deep knowledge of the music on hand, plus long years of experience was the evident formula. It is well said that “talent is hard work”, and many years of experience add to the over-all picture of a very great maestro.
I recall the years when Leonard was the conductor of both the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. We met regularly in London at the time, and I recall, still with wonder, how he managed this commuting across the ocean with apparent ease and aplomb, with great success in both cities, often with contrasting repertoire. And yet, he still found time to meet with friends.
Happy birthday, Maestro.
Jeffrey Siegel
I have known Leonard since the spring of 1965 – almost exactly 60 years!
We met at Juilliard. The name Slatkin was already familiar to me as I was, and am, a great fan of the Hollywood String Quartet recordings so magnificently played by Leonard’s father, mother, and their colleagues.
Leonard and I have been dear friends from the beginning and it has been my joy and privilege to be his piano soloist with many different orchestras in the world – and on rare occasions we also did some 2 piano work together.
I believe him to be one of the most outstanding musicians of his generation and I wish him continued good health and success.
David Whelton
Leonard Slatkin is a one off, a master of the ‘one liner’ with endless enthusiasm and curiosity – the Philharmonia Orchestra always looked forward to his visits. Planning and scheduling was always straightforward, he knew the constraints of working in London and appreciated the brilliance and flexibility of London musicians. Leonard was committed to taking his London programmes to the regions and was a very popular guest at the PO’s regional residencies. He became very familiar with the motorway network and his optimism never failed him even at the service stations!
Leonard has an affinity with British music, his highly regarded Vaughan Williams cycle being just one example which fortunately was captured on disc. His curiosity led him into many highways and byways and he was always happy to read new scores. His visits to the Three Choirs Festival were a highlight and he always insisted on staying in a small hotel deep in the Malvern hills. Elgar was another passion and his performances of the symphonies remain firmly etched in my memory.
The Philharmonia Orchestra had so many memorable concerts with Leonard, perhaps the most striking being the American Festival (1994) he curated with Amelia Freedman, then the Artistic Director of the RFH. Under his direction the PO played these magnificent scores with consummate virtuosity, these were authentic performances in the truest sense.
Leonard was a natural communicator and was committed to bringing great music to the widest possible audience. His remarkable musical heritage and wide range of interest made him a fascinating subject to interview and did much to dispel the ‘Maestro Myth’ for our audience.
Happy days for all of us who had the pleasure of working with him at the Philharmonia.
See comments for a more-reliable link to this recording.
David Wordsworth
It is impossible to believe that Leonard has reached such a significant milestone but those appear to be the facts, so a more than worthwhile excuse to celebrate his extraordinary contribution to our musical life. So many memories come to mind – great concerts in Amsterdam, Vienna, New York and of course London, a place we see far too little of Leonard these days. Insightful performances of popular and less familiar American music, Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Walton, as well as interpretations of standard repertoire that I thought I knew, that made me sit up and listen. Happy Birthday Leonard and we all look forward to many more years of music making.
Sir Roger Wright
Happy Birthday Leonard!
I raise a virtual glass to you and wish you a very special day, whilst celebrating all that you have done, in particular for British and American music and music-making.
I remember with gratitude and very fond memories the time we worked together in London and Cleveland and hope that our paths might cross again before too long.
With every good wish, Roger.
Colin Anderson
Finally me, last and – given the A-list company above – in my opinion anyway, least! Nevertheless, thank-you Leonard for your accessibility, inclusivity, engaging humour, messages and meets (such as a Chinese lunch for six, including Chris Rouse, in Amsterdam – when you asked for, and got, the background muzak switched off – and fish ‘n’ chips in St Martin’s Lane with Cindy), and, of course, the music, through go-to recordings, including those by the Hollywood String Quartet (a Testament to your musical lineage), concerts, as well as attending rehearsals and recording sessions (with you open to my occasional observations). Likewise your videoed conducting and repertoire tutorials, imaginative compositions, and four books (so far). Indispensable, all of these, for journeying along your particular musical highway – equating to belonging, enlightenment, and making a difference.
Rewinding, so glad l approached you on that Sunday morning (thirty years ago!), prior to a rehearsal of Elgar’s Violin Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman, to seek an interview. I was confident that if you said “no” you would be courteous; in fact you gave a one-word reply: “sure”. We met a few days later to talk, spontaneous conversation (my notes became superfluous), during which you were amusingly intrigued by my ancient cassette recorder and also issued a correction (others have since followed), namely the Mendelssohn that Elgar is often said to quote during one of the Enigma Variations is actually from Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto.
Leonard, I send congratulations, wish you continuing activity, and I guess Big Green Egg will be on duty today.
Some of my top Slatkin recordings:
“Leroy Anderson Favorites”. St Louis Symphony/RCA (Leonard has since recorded Leroy Anderson’s complete orchestral works for Naxos with BBC Concert Orchestra)
Bach Transcriptions by composers* & conductors. BBC Philharmonic* & BBC Symphony Orchestra/Chandos (two separate releases)
Bach/Holst; see Comment.
Brahms: The two Serenades, etc. St Louis/RCA (two separate releases)
Copland: Symphony 3. St Louis/RCA and Detroit/Naxos (the respective Finales of these two recordings follow)
……………..Appalachian Spring (complete score). Detroit/Naxos
Debussy: La mer, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, etc. St Louis/Telarc
Dukas: Symphony in C, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, etc. Orchestre National de France/RCA
Elgar: Symphony 2. London Philharmonic/RCA
………..Cello Concerto. Starker/Philharmonia Orchestra*/RCA (*miscredited to LPO in some pressings) c/w Walton’s Cello Concerto
Gershwin: Complete Orchestral Music (with Jeffrey Siegel, piano). St Louis/Vox Audiophile (two separate releases)
Haydn: The ‘London’ Symphonies (93-104). Philharmonia/RCA
Piston: Symphony 6; Incredible Flutist; New England Sketches. St Louis/RCA
Rachmaninov: Complete Orchestral Music (with Abbey Simon, piano). St Louis/Vox Audiophile (several separate releases, and there are Detroit/Naxos remakes of the Symphonies and Symphonic Dances).
Schubert: Symphony 9 (‘Great C-major’). St Louis/RCA
Schuman: Symphony 10 (‘American Muse’) etc. St Louis/RCA
“Slatkin conducts Slatkin”/Naxos https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574352
Tchaikovsky: Symphony 4 (c/w Fatum and The Voyevoda). St Louis/RCA (part of Symphonies 1-6 recorded cycle)
……………………The Three Ballets: Nutcracker; Sleeping Beauty; Swan Lake (each complete). St Louis/RCA
Varèse: Arcana. Philharmonia/RCA
A fantastic Arcana (the result of an inspired session, Keener/Faulkner) c/w The Planets, which starts on track two.
Vaughan Williams: The Nine Symphonies. Philharmonia/RCA
Greensleeves (track 1), A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony 3, tracks 2-5, with Linda Hohenfeld, soprano, in final movement), Symphony 4 (tracks 6-9).
Walton: Symphony 1. LPO/Virgin
https://www.discogs.com/release/13426654-Frederick-Delius-The-Music-Of-Delius
Happy Birthday Maestro!
Wishing you an appropriately festive day of celebrations with friends & family. Looking forward to working with you soon in Dublin with the National Symphony Orchestra!
Dear Leonard, prior to our working together I was already indebted to you for your many inspirational recordings, and for the standard you established as an extraordinary Music Director in St. Louis, Washington and Detroit. My admiration and gratitude expanded when you came to Rhode Island in 2021 to step in for the ailing Bramwell Tovey. Your kindness and friendship has meant so much to me ever since as you’ve provided leadership on the podium and support and advice behind the scenes. I hope you are having a wonderful time
marking this milestone birthday. I look forward to celebrating with you and Cindy just two weeks from now when you will launch the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra’s 80th Season! Happy Birthday, David Beauchesne and the RI Phil.
Happy Birthday to dear Leonard, who is at the center of the edifice of great American music making by virtue of having built so much of it!
Happy 80th birthday, Leonard! You have contributed an incomparable legacy through youn performances and recordings of both new music and traditional repertoire. On a personal level, you have been a supportive mentor for many years, and I include our recording of Leroy Anderson’s Piano Concerto and performances of Bill Bolcom and Beethoven works with chorus/orchestra as pivotal moments to be forever cherished. Wishing you many more wonderful years of making music!
Regarding the unavailable video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXAFseGb8Y
Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies 8 & 9.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k20HjWYRzww9iCs5MAJBkSsav1OGZ_JOI