Conductor Leonard Slatkin: Looking forward after two rough years

Leonard Slatkin talks about his future: "No matter what," says the baton meister, who guest-conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic this week at the Hollywood Bowl, "this will be my last directorship in the States," speaking of his Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which just ended a devastating six-month strike.

At 68, Slatkin is a veteran of music biz economics, having led many other important American ensembles and a number in Europe as well. But that's not all. In his last two turbulent years, L.A. native son Slatkin saw himself skewered for an opening-night performance at the Met and months before that  he suffered a heart attack on the podium in Rotterdam.

It takes a philosopher to withstand the pileup of so many crises. Count Slatkin as one.

Read The Times profile of Leonard Slatkin.

--Donna Perlmutter

Photo: Leonard Slatkin conducts the Academy Festival Orchestra during a rehearsal at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times