Riccardo Muti celebrates community concerts as central to his CSO mission

Since his first season in 2010-2011, Riccardo Muti has has made free community concerts central to his tenure as music director. Venues have ranged across the Chicago area, including Millennium Park, Apostolic Church of God, Morton East High School and Lane Tech College Prep High School.

On June 27, Muti and the CSO will perform their final Concert for Chicago together at Millennium Park. As Muti completes a storied chapter in the history of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, here’s a look back at his community concerts through the years.

2022: Concert for Chicago

June 27 | The community concert moves from its usual fall slot to the summer, in part because of pandemic-related scheduling issues. Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra close the season with a program featuring Tchaikovsky’s unabashedly autobiographical Symphony No. 4, while Shostakovich’s Festive Overture sets the evening’s tone in rousing terms.

2022: Community concert at the Apostolic Church of God

Jan. 28 | With international touring plans postponed due to the pandemic, Riccardo Muti returns for a January residency featuring two concerts in community venues. At the Apostolic Church of God, 6320 S. Dorchester, in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra offer a Baroque-era program of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor and the Flute Concerto in G Minor, with Principal Flute Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson as soloist, along with Handel’s Water Music Suite No. 1.

2022: Community concert at Morton East 

Jan. 14 | In the first of two community concerts this month, Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra return to Chodl Auditorium at J. Sterling Morton East High School in Cicero for a program of Beethoven’s Fifth and Eighth symphonies.

2018: Concert for Chicago 

Sept. 20 | The season begins at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park as Riccardo Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony in Tchaikovsky’s festive 1812 Overture, along with orchestral selections by Verdi and Rossini. The concert also honors the centennial of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, with Civic members playing alongside CSO musicians. At the finale, Muti offers his own call to action: “There is still a lot of work … to bring musical culture around the world. The more society is cultivated, the more life will be peaceful.”

2017: Community concert at Lane Tech High School

Nov. 15 | Riccardo Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a community concert at Lane Tech College Prep High School on the city’s North Side. The school has had several alumni, including percussionist Sam Denov and violinists Adrian Da Prato and Raymond Niwa, go on to become CSO members. Muti selected the program, featuring Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony to share “a message of love and beauty” to “the young, the generation of the future.” Muti reminds the students that “only beauty with a capital ‘B’ can save the world.” (Muti and the CSO would return to Lane Tech for another community concert on Sept. 24, 2019.)

2017: Community concert at Holy Name Cathedral

Feb. 17 | Traveling to the seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Riccardo Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a special free community concert at Holy Name Cathedral of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, narrates the titles of each movement in Latin and English, in addition to providing sacred reflections on the music.  

2016: Concert at the Apostolic Church of God

Oct. 13 | Riccardo Muti and the CSO return for their second community concert at the Apostolic Church of God, 6320 S. Dorchester, in the South Side’s Woodlawn neighborhood. The concert opens with an invitation to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred to as the Black National Anthem, with the Chatham Choral Ensemble and guest vocalists. Also are the program are Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Leonore Overture No. 3. As the concert ends, Muti tells the audience that he chose two works by Beethoven because of their “message of freedom, liberty, brotherhood … all the good feelings that little by little in the world are disappearing.”

2015: Concert for Chicago

Sept. 18 | The Orchestra’s 125th anniversary season with a special weekend of performances, including a Concert for Chicago at Millennium Park. Despite a tornado warning, an audience of more than 5,000 brave the inclement weather to hear Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. 

2014: Concert for Chicago

Sept. 19 | At the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Riccardo Muti conducts a Concert for Chicago, an all-Tchaikovsky program featuring The Tempest, a suite from The Sleeping Beauty and the Fourth Symphony. Throughout the season, Muti leads the CSO in a series of concerts exploring the symphonic works of Tchaikovsky, including his seven symphonies, alongside the symphonic works of Alexander Scriabin.  

2013: Community concert at Morton East

Sept. 18 | Riccardo Muti leads the CSO in a free community concert at Morton East High School in Cicero — the alma mater of Daniel Gingrich, associate principal horn, who receives a special ovation. In addition to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, as well as soprano Barbara Frittoli and bass Luca Dall’Amico, the performance features community choruses City Voices, Kol Zimrah, North Shore Choral Society and the Wicker Park Choral Singers. 

2012: Concert for Chicago

Sept. 21 | Riccardo Muti returns to Millennium Park with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to perform Orff’s Carmina burana with soloists Rosa Feola, Antonio Giovannini and Audun Iversen, along with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Chicago Children’s Choir, for another memorable Concert for Chicago. 

2011: Community concert at the Apostolic Church of God

Sept. 22 | Opening his second season as music director, Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra travel to the Apostolic Church of God, 6320 S. Dorchester, as part of his campaign to bring the ensemble to communities beyond Orchestra Hall. The concert, anchored by Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, attracts an overflow audience of more than 5,000. “We are here to bring our feelings, our love and our friendship,” he tells the crowd and adds “music is one of the few things in the world that can bring all people together.”

2010: First Concert for Chicago

Sept. 19 | Starting what would become a nearly annual tradition for the Chicago community, Riccardo Muti officially launches his tenure as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 10th music director with a free concert at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion, attracting a crowd of more than 25,000.