Music Director and Principal Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City and of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Israel, Leon Botstein is alsothe founder and co-artistic director of the Bard Music Festival and has been president of Bard College in New York since 1975. He has conducted orchestras throughout Europe and North America, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the orchestras of NDR Hamburg and NDR Hannover, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra and orchestra of Teatro Real in Madrid. He has made a number of important recordings of works by Bartók, Brahms, Bruckner, Copland, Dukas, Glière, Hartmann, Liszt, Popov, Strauss and Szymanowski, among others. He 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 the prestigious Centennial Award of Harvard University, while the government of Austria has conferred on him the Cross of Honour, First Class. In 2008 Leon Botstein will lead the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra on two European tours and a tour of the United States.