Leonard Slatkin & Cameron Carpenter

Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL), Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria (OFGC), Artistic Consultant to the Las Vegas Philharmonic (LVP), and Artistic Advisor to the Nashville Symphony. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting and is active as a composer, author, and educator.

The 2025-26 season includes engagements with the National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, SLSO, USC Thornton Symphony, LVP, Taiwan Philharmonic, KBS Symphony Orchestra (Seoul), Gunma Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), Nashville Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Warsaw Philharmonic, Franz Schubert Filharmonia (Barcelona), ONL, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica George Enescu (Bucharest), OFGC, and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

Slatkin has received six Grammy awards and 35 nominations. Naxos recently reissued Vox audiophile editions of his SLSO recordings featuring the works of Gershwin, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev. Other Naxos recordings include Slatkin Conducts Slatkin—a compilation of pieces written by generations of his family—as well as works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Berlioz, Copland, Borzova, McTee, and Williams.

A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has been awarded the Prix Charbonnier from the Federation of Alliances Françaises, Austria’s Decoration of Honor in Silver, and the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton. His debut book, Conducting Business (2012), for which he received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award, was followed by Leading Tones (2017) and Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st Century (2021). His latest books are Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Twentieth Century (spring 2024) and Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Nineteenth Century (fall 2024), part of an ongoing series of essays that supplement the score-study process, published by Bloomsbury.

Cameron Carpenter made history as the first organist ever nominated for a GRAMMY Award for a solo album. His ground-breaking career has been recognized with prestigious honors, including the 2012 Leonard Bernstein Award, along with multiple accolades such as the ECHO Klassik and Opus Klassik Awards. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Carpenter has performed around the globe at renowned venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, and Berliner Philharmonie. His diverse collaborations include commissions from the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and KölnMusik GmbH, as well as performances at prestigious events like TED and the Aspen Ideas Festival. Carpenter’s work has brought him to the stage with world-class orchestras, including the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh and Dallas Symphonies, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester and more. He has worked with acclaimed conductors including Alexander Shelley, Manfred Honneck, Tughan Sokhiev, Cornelius Meister, Christoph Eschenbach and Kirill Karabits.

Recent and upcoming recital highlights include performances at the Lucerne Festival, Philharmonie Cologne, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and his debut at Cité de La Musique in Paris, alongside a residency at Konzerthaus Berlin. Whether performing on the grandest stages or intimate settings, Cameron Carpenter continues to captivate audiences and redefine the possibilities of the organ. In 2014, Carpenter unveiled the International Touring Organ (ITO), a revolutionary digital organ of his own design.
While the project faced setbacks due to the pandemic, Carpenter continues to redefine the organ’s place in contemporary music. His 2021 album, recorded at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, showcases his interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations alongside Hanson’s Symphony No. 2, demonstrating his signature blend of classical mastery and innovation. His previous album, All You Need is Bach, debuted at #1 on the traditional classical charts.