40 2014 Program Notes, Book 7
Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26, 2014
CHRISTOPHER BELL’s
biography can be found on page 18.
LEONARD SLATKIN
, former Principal Conductor of the
Grant Park Music Festival, is currently Music Director of both
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National
de Lyon, France. He has served as Music Director of the St.
Louis Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra
in Washington, D.C., Conductor of the BBC Symphony
Orchestra in London, Principal Guest Conductor with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic,
Philharmonia Orchestra of London and Pittsburgh Symphony
Orchestra. Born in Los Angeles to a distinguished musical
family, Leonard Slatkin is the son of conductor-violinist Felix Slatkin and cellist
Eleanor Aller, founding members of the famed Hollywood String Quartet. He began
his musical studies on violin and studied conducting with his father, followed by
Walter Susskind at Aspen and Jean Morel at Juilliard. Mr. Slatkin has received the
National Medal of Arts, American Symphony Orchestra League’s Gold Baton Award,
earned France’s Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Austria’s Declaration of Honor in
Silver. Founder and director of the National Conducting Institute and the St. Louis
Symphony Youth Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin continues his conducting and teaching
activities at the Indiana University School of Music, Manhattan School of Music and
Juilliard School.
MICHEL CAMILO
, born in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic, studied for thirteen years at the National
Conservatory and at the age of sixteen became a member of
the National Symphony Orchestra. In 1979 he moved to New
York, where he continued his studies at Mannes and Juilliard,
and since his Carnegie Hall debut has become a prominent
musical figure performing regularly around the world. Among
the many highlights of Mr. Camilo’s career are a two-year
residency as Jazz Creative Director Chair of the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra, participation in the 55th Anniversary
Celebration of the Newport Jazz Festival and five-year tenure as Musical Director
of the Heineken Jazz Festival (Dominican Republic). Mr. Camilo is also widely
recognized as a composer, and tonight performs his own Piano Concerto No. 2.
Michel Camilo’s honors include UTESA, the Crystal Apple from the Mayor of the
City of New York and the Dominican government’s highest civilian honors, including
the Silver Great Cross of the Order of Duarte and Knight of the Heraldic Order of
Christopher Columbus.
Bass-baritone
ALFRED WALKER
has appeared in starring
roles with many of the leading European and American opera
companies, including Porgy in
Porgy and Bess
with the Los
Angeles Opera and the title role in
Don Quichotte
with Tulsa
Opera. Equally versatile as a concert artist, Mr. Walker has
been heard with the Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival,
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic;
he has also collaborated in a concert performance of Strauss’
Salome
at the Tanglewood Festival with Seiji Ozawa and
presented recitals at the Manchester Music Festival. A
graduate of Dillard University, Loyola University and the Metropolitan Opera
Lindemann Young Artist Program, New Orleans native Alfred Walker is the recipient
of awards from the George London Foundation, Palm Beach Opera Competition,
and a Sullivan Foundation Career Grant.
