Leon Botstein is music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Israel. Radio broadcasts of Mr. Botstein’s concerts with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra have been heard in syndication throughout the United States. He is also the founder and co-artistic director of the Bard Music Festival, celebrating its 20^th year. Since 1975 he has been president of Bard College in New York.

 

Guest engagements have included the BBC Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony,  the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphony, the London Philharmonic, NDR—Hamburg and Hannover, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and Teatro Real Madrid, among others. In addition to a demanding schedule as a guest conductor, Leon Botstein has also made a number of acclaimed recordings of works by Dukas, Chausson, Dohnanyi, Liszt, Bruckner, Bartók, Hartmann, Reger, Gliere, and Szymanowski for such labels as Telarc, New World Records, Bridge, Koch, and CPO. With the American Symphony Orchestra he has recorded live performances of two operas by Richard Strauss: Die ägyptische Helena with Deborah Voigt and Die Liebe der Danae with Lauren Flanigan; a recording of Copland, Sessions, Perle, and Rands; and discs of Dohnanyi, Brahms, and Joachim among others. His recording with the London Symphony Orchestra of Gavriil Popov’s epic Symphony No. 1 and Shostakovich’s Theme and Variations, Op. 3 received a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Orchestral Performance.

Mr. Botstein is the editor of The Musical Quarterly and the author of numerous articles and books. For his contributions to music he has received the award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor, First Class from the government of Austria.