Famed conductor will join Jacobs faculty in fall 2007

The IU Jacobs School of Music recently confirmed the appointment of renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin to the School of Music faculty, continuing its long tradition of attracting the music world's greatest talent to teach its students. \nThough the announcement was made last month, the excitement has yet to die down.\n"We're overjoyed," conducting professor David Effron said. "He's done so much for American repertoire, and he's a terrific teacher."\nSlatkin will begin his tenure at IU during the 2007--08 school year. Next year will be his final season with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., where he has conducted for 12 years.\nIn Paris, between rehearsals with the Orchestre Philharmonique, Slatkin said he was already thinking ahead to his new role as a professor.\n"I have ideas I want to implement," he said. "I really want to find things that utilize what I do well and will help the institution grow."\nSlatkin has worked with IU student orchestras for the past two years as a guest artist at the Jacobs School of Music's Summer Music Festival, but his roots in Bloomington go much deeper. \n"I studied with (piano professor) Menahem Pressler back in 1962," Slatkin said. \nSlatkin returned home to California, where his father passed away shortly after, then attended Los Angeles Community College and studied English, he said.\nSlatkin eventually entered the Juilliard School in New York as a conducting student and has since pointed his baton in cities nationwide -- including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis -- as well as internationally, as on his current European tour through Stockholm, Sweden; Paris and Lyon, France; Milan, Italy; and Rotterdam, Netherlands.\nHis appointment to the Jacobs School of Music is made possible by funding from the Arthur R. Metz Foundation, which has an extensive history of support for both the theater department and the music school. The foundation currently covers the costs of maintaining and performing on two carillons on the Bloomington campus. \nSlatkin's appointment raises many questions. His initial appointment is limited to a three-year period, but negotiations are underway for an extended tenure. "It's hard to say" what will happen after 2008-09, Richards said.\n"There has always been the question of what he will do after the National Symphony Orchestra," he said.\nBut Richards is optimistic.\n"We know Bloomington will be his academic home," he said.\nSlatkin's work beyond the University remains to be settled as well. Though he will be stepping down as music director of the National Symphony, he will remain music advisor to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, as well as principal guest conductor of both the Royal Philharmonic in London and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.\nHis continued involvement with the National Conducting Institute, which is associated with the National Symphony, is also unclear.\n"That determination has not yet been made," said Patricia O'Kelly of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which houses the National Symphony.\nFor his part, Slatkin said he would probably not get around to planning that far ahead until the current season winds down in April.\n"I don't know what's going to happen," he said. "Finishing my tenure in Washington, it struck me as certainly a good time to be thinking about new challenges. But as far as long range, I'm not sure"