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Leonard Slatkin. 37, of the St. Louis Symphony. The leader of this first-class orchestra comes by his music loving naturally. Growing up in Los Angeles, Slatkin heard his violinist father and cellist mother play chamber music regularly as half of the Hollywood String Quartet. Slatkin on the podium maintains tight control over his orchestra; his performances are marked by precision and a command of musical architecture that permits him to bring off unwieldly pieces like Rachmaninoffs uncut Second Symphony.
Christopher Keene, 35, of the Syracuse Symphony and Long Island Philharmonic. The most flamboyant of the five, Keene has already held a variety of music directorships, including those of the Spoleto Festival and of Art park, a state park for the arts in Lewiston, N.Y.; he frequently conducts at the New York City Opera. Keene is a master of the grand gesture and can make the sparks fly even in a piece as reflective as Britten's War Requiem. An exponent of new music, he led the U.S. premiere in 1981 of Philip Glass's visionary opera, Satyagraha.
Calvin Simmons, 31, of the Oakland Symphony. When Oakland selected Simmons as its music director in 1979, it found a conductor of enormous potential, whose life has been in music ever since he was a boy chorister singing in San Francisco Opera productions. Simmons is constantly exploring the reaches of the orchestral repertory, programming unusual works such as Hoist's Hymn of Jesus and Bruchner's Mass No. 3. A dynamic opera conductor, he will lead Mozart's Cost Fan Tutte in June with the Opera Theater of St. Louis.
Each of these men has the talent to direct a Big Five orchestra. But there is more to being a music director than being a top conductor. Says Thomas Morris, general manager of the Boston Symphony: "An orchestra looks for someone who will devote his attention to the job's administrative aspects, who is willing to lead the institution, who will be a member of the local community, who can deal with personnel and who will be a creative programmer." Further, says Morris, a conductor who already has a recording contract with a major label—a kind of dowry—is an even more attractive candidate, for recordings today play a vital role in a major orchestra's financial health.
Even if an American has all the qualifications, does he have a chance at a top post? "If you have two people at the same point in their careers, then there probably is an advantage to being European," says Gideon Toeplitz, executive director of the Houston Symphony. "In America, there's a mystery behind being Indian or Japanese or European that contributes greatly from a marketing point of view." Adds another major orchestra manager: "Orchestras are always looking for that extra presence that leaps across the footlights, charisma. The foreign element may add to that."