Leon Botstein, born December 14, 1946, in Zürich, Switzerland, is an American conductor and educator. He immigrated to New York City at age two and studied violin with Roman Totenberg. Botstein's musical career began during his undergraduate years at the University of Chicago, where he was concertmaster and assistant conductor of the university orchestra. In 1975, he became the president of Bard College. Botstein returned to conducting in 1985 after completing his Ph.D. in music history at Harvard. He established the Bard Music Festival in 1990 and became the director of the American Symphony Orchestra in 1992. Notable recordings include Chausson: Le roi Arthus, Op. 23 (2005) and Gavriil Popov’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 7 with the London Symphony Orchestra, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006.
