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June 25, 1973 | Riccardo Muti made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, conducting Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide, Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor and Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
March 20-22, 1975 | Muti returned to conduct the CSO on subscription concerts at Orchestra Hall, leading Vivaldi’s Concerto in A Major for Strings and Continuo, Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and the Orchestra’s first subscription concert performances of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony.
September 2007 | After an absence of 32 years, Muti returned to conduct the CSO for a month-long residency. On Sept. 14 and 16, he led the Orchestra’s first subscription concerts of the 117th season, which included Prokofiev’s Third Symphony. The second week of subscription concerts included performances of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, and a gala on Sept. 15 with soprano Barbara Frittoli in arias by Cilea, Puccini and Verdi.
Sept. 26-Oct. 6, 2007 | Following the concerts in Chicago, Muti led the Orchestra on a seven-city, nine-concert European tour to England, France, Germany and a return to Italy for the first time in more than 25 years that included debut performances in Rome, Turin and Verona.
May 5, 2008 | Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association President Deborah Rutter Card announced that Riccardo Muti would become the Orchestra’s 10th music director, beginning with the 2010/11 season.
October 2009 | Riccardo Muti, music director designate, outlined several initiatives for his tenure. One was to appoint CSO Mead Composers-in-Residence who would act as advocates within the Chicago community to further the understanding and appreciation of all music. He named Mason Bates and Anna Clyne to two-year terms beginning in 2010, which were later extended through the 2014/15 season.
January 2009 | Muti’s first appearances as the CSO’s music director designate were on Jan. 15, 16 and 17, 2009, conducting Verdi’s Requiem. Soloists were Barbara Frittoli, Olga Borodina, Mario Zeffiri and Ildar Abdrazakov, and the Chicago Symphony Chorus was prepared by Chorus Director Duain Wolfe.
Sept. 19, 2010 | Muti officially began his tenure as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 10th music director, leading a free concert in Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion before a crowd of more than 25,000 people, starting an annual tradition for the people of Chicago.
Sept. 27, 2010 | Muti brought a special performance to the residents of the Illinois Youth Centers in Warrenville. Each season since 2010, Muti has visited a Chicago-area juvenile justice facility to present an interactive recital for incarcerated youth. Maestro Muti’s prison visits have inspired a portfolio of musical projects for the Negaunee Music Institute in partnership with specialists in the field.
Feb. 13, 2011 | The CSO’s 2009 recording of Verdi’s Requiem, conducted by Muti, received Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
April 2011 | On April 7, 9 and 12, Muti conducted concert performances of Verdi’s Otello, followed by another performance at Carnegie Hall on April 15. The Chicago performances were later released on a recording on the CSO Resound label to coincide with Verdi’s 200th birthday in fall of 2013.
May 5, 2011 | Muti conducted the world premiere performance of Bernard Rands’ Danza petrificada at Orchestra Hall and then took the work on tour to Europe with the CSO. Muti also conducted the world premiere of another CSO commission by Rands, DREAM for Orchestra, in November 2019.
Aug. 22-Sept. 7, 2011 | Muti and the CSO traveled on their first European tour together since his appointment as music director. The tour included performances at the Salzburg, Lucerne and Dresden music festivals in Luxembourg at the Philharmonie, in Paris at the Salle Pleyel and in Vienna at the Musikverein.
Sept. 22, 2011 | The 2011/12 season began with a free community concert at the Apostolic Church of God in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago with a crowd of almost 6,000 people ranging in age from toddlers to senior citizens. Muti and the CSO returned to this venue in October 2016.
Feb. 14-19, 2012 | The CSO, with Muti at the podium, returned to California for the first time in 25 years for concerts in San Francisco, Costa Mesa, Palm Desert and San Diego. The February 2012 tour included the West Coast premieres of pieces by CSO Mead Composers-in-Residence Mason Bates and Anna Clyne. Muti and the Orchestra toured the West Coast for a second time in the fall of 2017, a tour that included performances of works by CSO Mead Composers-in-Residence Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek.
March 15-17, 2012 | Muti conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus in Schoenberg’s Kol Nidre, which was later released on CSO Resound on Sept. 30, 2016, with Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, recorded in June 2012.
April 2012 | Muti conducted concerts on the CSO’s second trip ever to Russia for three concerts: two at the Great Hall of the Conservatory in Moscow (April 18-19) and one at the Great Hall of the Philharmonia in St. Petersburg (April 21). The tour continued to the Italian cities of Rome, Naples, Brescia and Ravenna.
Sept. 21, 2012 | Muti returned to Millennium Park with the CSO on Sept. 21 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.
October 2012 | Following performances at Carnegie Hall, Muti embarked with the CSO on the Orchestra’s first trip to Mexico for two concerts, one each at the Teatro Juárez in Guanajuato on Oct. 8 and the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City on Oct. 10. Both programs included Franck’s Symphony in D Minor and Brahms’ Second Symphony, and the encore each evening was Martucci’s Notturno.
June 19, 2013 | Music Director Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra jumped on the Chicago Blackhawks bandwagon on June 19, 2013, recording a video of the song “Chelsea Dagger” by the Scottish band the Fratellis. For many years, the song has been played in United Center whenever the Blackhawks score a goal.
Sept. 18, 2013 | Muti led the Orchestra in a free community concert at Morton East High School in Cicero. 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 featured community choruses City Voices, Kol Zimrah, North Shore Choral Society and the Wicker Park Choral Singers.
September-October 2013 | Muti led a three-week celebration honoring Verdi’s bicentennial, including concert performances of Macbeth, the CSO Resound release of Otello and the first CSO webcast of Verdi’s Requiem on Oct. 10, 2013, Verdi’s 200th birthday.
Jan. 30-31 and Feb. 1, 2014 | Riccardo Muti conducted Giovanni Sollima’s Antidotum Tarantulae XXI, Concerto for Two Cellos and Orchestra, with Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Yo-Yo Ma and the composer as soloists. These concerts also began Muti’s season-long presentation of Schubert’s eight symphonies: the first complete cycle in a single season in the Orchestra’s history of Schubert’s seven completed symphonies and the Unfinished Symphony No. 8, in addition to Schubert’s Mass No. 5 in A-flat Major, D. 591.
Feb. 6-8, 2014 | In addition to performances of Schubert’s Mass No. 5 in A-flat Major, Muti conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Ennio Morricone’s Voices from the Silence, a work Muti suggested Morricone compose in tribute to 9/11. Morricone came to Chicago for these performances.
April 2014 | The CSO Resound recording of Verdi’s Otello received the International Opera Award for Best Complete Opera in April 2014 in London.
June 20, 2014 | Riccardo Muti gave the keynote address at the commencement ceremonies for Northwestern University’s graduation at Ryan Field in Evanston.
Sept. 18, 2014 | This special performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, conducted by Riccardo Muti, was recorded live and made available online, thanks to the support of a generous anonymous donor. The video has since received more than 31 million views on YouTube alone.
Sept. 19, 2014 | Muti conducted another Concert for Chicago at Millennium Park, an all-Tchaikovsky program featuring The Tempest, a suite from The Sleeping Beauty and the Fourth Symphony. Throughout the season, Muti led the CSO in a series of concerts exploring the symphonic works of Tchaikovsky, including his seven symphonies, alongside the symphonic works of Alexander Scriabin.
September 2014 | CSO Resound released a new album featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Riccardo Muti in performance from October 2013, playing an extended suite drawn from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet score.
Oct. 20-Nov. 2, 2014 | On the Fall 2014 European Tour, Muti conducted the CSO’s debuts in Warsaw, Poland, and Geneva, Switzerland, in addition to performances in Luxembourg, Paris and a week-long residency at the Musikverein in Vienna.
Jan. 22-24, 2015 | Muti and the CSO performed one of Prokofiev’s most famous and monumental scores for the films of Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Nevsky. They performed Ivan the Terrible in February 2017, along with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and actor Gérard Depardieu in the title role.
January 2015 | Muti appointed Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek to three-year terms as Mead Composers-in-Residence. During their time with the CSO, each of the composers had multiple works conducted by Muti, including CSO commissions, bringing these emerging composers to international attention.
June 18, 2015 | Muti conducted the premiere of Mead Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates’ Anthology of Fantastic Zoology, a work dedicated to Muti. The work was later released in June 2016 on a CSO Resound recording.
Sept. 18, 2015 | Riccardo Muti opened the Orchestra’s 125th anniversary season with a special weekend of performances, including a Concert for Chicago for an audience of more than 5,000, who, despite a tornado warning, braved the inclement weather to support Muti and the CSO and to hear Mahler’s First Symphony.
Sept. 21, 2015 | To recognize the shared 125th anniversary of the University of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a sponsored public discussion between Riccardo Muti and Phillip Huscher, CSO program annotator, took place at the Logan Center for the Arts on the University of Chicago campus.
September 2015 | This fall also included the release for the double-disc feature of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Lélio, or Return to Life, Op. 14b, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Duain Wolfe, director), Gerard Depardieu as narrator, tenor Mario Zeffiri, and bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen, recorded during Muti’s first subscription concerts as music director in September 2010.
Jan. 15-29, 2016 | Muti and the Orchestra undertook their first tour together to Asia with 10 sold-out concerts in Taipei, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul.
April 21, 23 and 26, 2016 | Muti conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and an all-star cast of soloists, with baritone Ambrogio Maestri in the title role, in Verdi’s final opera Falstaff. “The CSO’s 125th anniversary season has brought us nothing finer,” wrote John von Rhein in the Chicago Tribune.
June 14, 2016 | Muti unveiled a bust of Fritz Reiner, the CSO’s sixth music director, in the Michigan Avenue outer lobby of Symphony Center as part of the CSO’s 125th season celebration.
Oct. 13, 2016 | Muti and the CSO returned to Apostolic Church of God, opening the concert with an invitation to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred to as the Black National Anthem, performed with the Chatham Choral Ensemble and guest vocalists.
Jan. 13-27, 2017 | Muti led the Orchestra on its 60th international tour and 33rd tour to Europe with 11 concerts in cities including Paris, Hamburg, Aalborg in Denmark, Milan, Vienna, Baden-Baden and Frankfurt.
Feb. 17, 2017 | Muti conducted a special free community performance Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross at Holy Name Cathedral with Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, who narrated the titles of each movement in Latin and English in addition to providing sacred reflections on the music.
March 17, 2017 | Muti conducted the CSO at Edman Memorial Chapel as part of the CSO’s first official season of concerts at Wheaton College. Joining Muti and the CSO for this concert was pianist Mitsuko Uchida, performing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto.
May 2017 | Muti conducted Brahms’ four symphonies in two memorable sets of concerts.
June 16, 2017 | The live recording of the 2016/17 season finale performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 on CSO Resound was released and later ranked by the New York Times as a best classical music recording of the year.
June 22-25, 2017 | Muti concluded the season with a performance of Italian opera masterworks, including the Prologue to Mefistofele by Boito. Selections from these performances were later released on CSO Resound in December 2018.
Nov. 15, 2017 | Lane Tech College Prep High School on Chicago’s North Side shares in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s legacy, as some of its alumni went on to become members of the Orchestra. Muti conducted a community concert there again on Sept. 24, 2019.
Feb. 1, 2018 | Muti conducted the world premiere of Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto, a CSO co-commission, and then took the work on tour, performing it in New York at Carnegie Hall; in Naples and West Palm Beach, Florida, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
March 22, 2018 | Muti conducted the world premiere of CSO viola Max Raimi’s Three Lisel Mueller Settings featuring mezzo-soprano soloist Elizabeth DeShong and CSO colleagues Principal Clarinet Stephen Williamson, Principal Bassoon Keith Buncke and Principal Bass Alexander Hanna.
April 12-14 & 17, 2018 | Acclaimed actor and Illinois native John Malkovich joined the CSO and Muti for four memorable performances of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait.
June 26, 2018 | Muti appointed Missy Mazzoli as Mead Composer-in-Residence. Her CSO-commissioned work Orpheus Undone, postponed due to concert cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic, will receive its world premiere with Muti and the Orchestra in 2022.
Sept. 21-22 and 25, 2018 | Muti opened the CSO 2018/19 subscription season with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar). In attendance was Madame Irina Shostakovich, the composer’s widow, who joined Muti and Scholar-in-Residence Phillip Huscher on stage after the performance for a Q&A session with the audience, aided by a translator. The performance was later released on CSO Resound in December 2019, and received a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical on March 14, 2021.
Jan. 19-Feb. 4, 2019 | Muti and the CSO embarked on their second tour to Asia. In addition to concerts in Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing and Osaka, Muti led the CSO, soloists and the Tokyo Opera Singers in two performances of Verdi’s Requiem during a residency at the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo.
Feb. 27-March 2, 2019 | The CSO and Music Director Riccardo Muti conducted their Florida Tour 2019, with stops in West Palm Beach, Miami and Naples. The Naples concerts marked the start of a planned three-year residency presented by Artis—Naples.
June 22, 2019 | The Chicago West Community Music Center presented Riccardo Muti with the W.I.S.H. Award for Distinguished Service to Music Education at a gala celebrating the center’s 20th anniversary. This event preceded his September 2019 open rehearsal with students of the CWCMC.
June 21, 23 and 25, 2019 | Maestro Muti closed the 2019/20 season with three highly anticipated performances of Verdi’s Aida with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and a cast of distinguished soloists, including Krassimira Stoyanova in the title role (replaced in one performance by Elaine Alvarez), Francesco Meli as Radamès and Anita Rachvelishvili as Amneris.
Sept. 17, 2019 | Ahead of the start of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2019/20 season, Riccardo Muti returned to historic Wrigley Field, where he threw out the first pitch at the game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. Muti also threw the first pitch on June 13, 2012.
September 2019 | Muti began the Beethoven 250 celebration by conducting Beethoven’s First and Third symphonies. Throughout the 2019/20 season, Muti, the CSO and artists on the Symphony Center Presents series performed works by Ludwig van Beethoven in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Before concerts were canceled due to COVID-19, Muti conducted Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 1-3 and 5, as well as Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos as soloist.
Nov. 15-16, 2019 | Maestro Muti and the CSO performed two concerts in Carnegie Hall, a visit that marked the Orchestra’s 139th and 140th appearances in the New York City venue. Programs included Berlioz’s The Death of Cleopatra, featuring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and works by Prokofiev, Respighi and Bizet. The first concert on Nov. 15 was broadcast and streamed live by New York’s WQXR-FM.
November 2019 | Muti named Lina Gonzalez-Granados as the winner of the International Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprenticeship. The apprenticeship program was announced by Muti in 2009 in keeping with his longtime dedication to developing the careers of young musicians in Chicago and elsewhere. The post was previously held by Sean Kubota (2011-2013), Matthew Aucoin (2013-2015) and Erina Yashima (2015-2019).
Jan. 9-23, 2020| Muti and the CSO went on their eighth European tour together with stops in eight cities in six countries, including a residency at the Musikverein in Vienna, where they performed Verdi’s Requiem in honor of the hall’s 150th anniversary.
Feb. 6-8, 2020 | Muti conducted Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and an all-star cast of soloists, including mezzo-sopranos Ronnita Miller as Mamma Lucia, mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili as Santuzza and Sasha Cooke as Lola; tenor Piero Pretti as Turiddu and bass-baritone Luca Salsi as Alfio.
April 20, 2021 | Muti appointed Jessie Montgomery as the next Mead Composer-in-Residence, beginning July 1 and continuing through June 30, 2024.
June 22, 2021 | Muti appointed Hilary Hahn as the CSO’s first artist-in-residence for a two-year term beginning with the 2021/22 season.
