An American in Paris

Leonard Slatkin is a musical legend: composer and winner of several Grammy Awards and chief conductor of the great BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He has prepared a truly personal programme for Prague. The most intimate work is certainly Kinah, Elegy in Hebrew, which he dedicated to his parents. As an American globetrotter, he also feels a kinship with Gershwin's American in Paris. Of all the Czech compositions to honour the Year of Czech Music, he chose the evocative Music for Prague 1968 by Czech American Karel Husa, and of all the soloists in the world, he chose pianist Olga Kern, who comes from a musical family with direct ties to Rachmaninov.

The concert is held under the auspices of the US Embassy in Prague.