National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), founded in 1931, is an American symphony orchestra based in Washington, D.C.. Its principal performing venue is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Leonard Slatkin
Slatkin was the director of the Blossom Festival of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1990 to 1999. Slatkin was music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. from 1996 to 2008. Noted for putting the “national” back in National Symphony with programs highlighting twentieth-century American works, Slatkin received both praise for improving the overall quality of the orchestra and criticism for under-rehearsal of the NSO.