In 2005, Leonard Slatkin led the North Carolina Symphony in a special concert to celebrate the restoration of Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill. 

Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), 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, and Artistic Consultant to the Las Vegas Philharmonic. He is also a composer, author, and educator. 

To celebrate his 80th birthday, he is returning to orchestras he led as Music Director, including the DSO, ONL, SLSO, and National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, DC). Additional 2024/25 highlights include the New York Philharmonic, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Jersusalem Symphony Orchestra. His composition Schubertiade: An Orchestral Fantasy and his arrangement of Scarlatti keyboard sonatas for orchestral wind ensemble receive world premieres this season. 

Slatkin has received six Grammy awards and 35 nominations. Naxos recently reissued his SLSO recordings featuring Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev. Other recordings include Slatkin Conducts Slatkin—a compilation of pieces written by generations of his family. 

A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award for his debut book, Conducting Business: Unveiling the Mystery Behind the Maestro (2012), which was followed by Leading Tones: Reflections on Music, Musicians, and the Music Industry (2017) and Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st Century (2021). His two latest books, published in 2024, comprise essays that supplement the score-study process. 

Born in Los Angeles to a distinguished musical family, Slatkin began his musical training on the violin and first studied conducting with his father, followed by Walter Susskind at Aspen and Jean Morel at Juilliard.