Kenneth Slowik first established his international reputation primarily as a cellist and viola da gamba player through his work with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Castle Trio, Smithson String Quartet, Axelrod Quartet, and with Anner Bylsma’s L’Archibudelli. Conductor of the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra since 1988, he became conductor of the Santa Fe Bach Festival in 1998, and led the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra from 1999 to 2004. He has been a soloist and/or conductor with numerous other orchestras, including the National Symphony, the Baltimore, Vancouver, and Québec Symphonies, the Filharmonia Sudecka, the Pleven Philharmonic, the Polska Orkiestra Sinfonia Iuventus, the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Kenneth SlowikSlowik’s impressive discography comprises over seventy recordings featuring him as conductor, cellist, gambist, and keyboard player for music ranging from the Baroque (Marais, Pandolfi, Couperin, Corelli, Bach) through the Classical (Haydn, Boccherini, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert) and Romantic (Mendelssohn, Schumann, Onslow, Gade, Spohr) to the twentieth century (Schönberg, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Copland, Stravinsky). Of these, many have won prestigious international awards, including France’s Diapason d’Or and Choc, the “British Music Retailers’ Award for Excellence,” Italy’s Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi, two GRAMMY® nominations, and numerous “Record of the Month” and “Record of the Year” prizes. Recent releases include the first of several CDs of Haydn baryton trios with the ensemble Esterházy Machine, a disk of Shostakovich Chamber Symphonies, a traversal of Schubert's Winterreise with tenor John Elwes, and a DVD film about Schönberg’s First Chamber Symphony and Verklärte Nacht. As an educator, Dr. Slowik has presented lectures at colleges and universities throughout the United States and has contributed to a number of symposia and colloquia at museums in the United States and Europe. He serves on the faculties of the University of Maryland, the American Bach Soloists Academy, and L’Académie de musique du Domaine Forget, and was named Artistic Director of the Baroque Performance Institute at the Oberlin College Conservatory in 1993. In 2011, he was named recipient of the Smithsonian Secretary's Distinguished Research Lecture Award.

Generously supported by the Marshall M. Weinberg Endowed Fund in Early Music.