It was apparent the Las Vegas Philharmonic would be moving in a new direction after longtime music director and conductor Donato Cabrera stepped down, wrapping up a terrific tenure at the artistic institution earlier this year. Turns out the Phil is really shaking things up, looking at the future with fresh eyes heading into its 26th season this fall.
Prior to the unveiling of an eclectic 2024-2025 season at the Smith Center last month (check it out and get tickets now at lvphil.org), the Philharmonic announced Leonard Slatkin will serve as music consultant. An acclaimed conductor and author, Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Slatkin has served in music director positions for some 45 years and “I don’t want to do that anymore,” he tells the Weekly. He’d worked with current orchestra executive director Alice Sauro in the past, and when she contacted him, they discovered a new opportunity—which Slatkin is excited about and happy to explain.
Why did this position in Las Vegas make sense to you?
Las Vegas is one of the most interesting places culturally in the country. When [Sauro] approached me about having a relationship with the orchestra of some kind … I thought it interesting enough to consider some new ideas as it searches for a new artistic head. I’m not so sure orchestras in today’s world need what we call a music director. What does one do? They audition new members, try to shape some sort of personality, they reach into the community and get involved in fundraising and all these things.
These days, orchestras are a little more controlled over their own future. The logical next step perhaps could be to follow the European model and have a principal conductor. So I guess my job is to try to explore what it is the Las Vegas Philharmonic can mean for its community. We have the opportunity to do something different, to establish the framework for what the orchestra wants to be, where it wants to go, and find the appropriate leaders that fit the model—not the other way around.
So you’ll be helping to guide that direction, but you’ll be conducting as well, beginning November 9 with Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” and the “Mysterious Mountain” Symphony of Hovhaness.
I’ll conduct this season and the season after, I’ll be in close touch with the board and administration, we’ll be coming in with some really new and fresh ideas, and I think it will go well for the people who live in Las Vegas. Maybe if I do it right, we can put some things up that could be attractive for people [visiting Las Vegas]. We want to reach out to a broader contingency of people than before.
You mentioned the culture, and you’ve visited frequently since you were very young, with your parents being from California. Are there other resources or cultural aspects here to which you’d like to connect?
If you go to Penn & Teller and get there 45 minutes before the show, there’s Penn, playing bass with his pianist, and it’s really interesting music. And Teller, in his autobiography, mentions his favorite composer is the British composer William Walton. If that’s your favorite, you know something about music. Reaching into the existing entertainment community and finding people who have the background and some interest in the goings-on of what the orchestra might be could be very valuable. They could be spokespersons, in a way. We have Terry Fator in a show coming up this season. There are many other areas to explore.
The new season starts October 5 with The Beatles 60th Anniversary Concert and finishes next summer with that show with Fator. It’s quite diverse along the way.
People are going to find, I think, in each program, just a few things that are not familiar but are intriguing and balanced. This orchestra is really good and the public needs to respect what they are doing, trying so hard to make Las Vegas part of an expanded view of the cultural landscape. I love Vegas, it’s a close association for me, a little full-circle since I’ve been involved since I was 6 or 7 years old, and I’m delighted to have this association some 75 years later.
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