Happy Birthday, Conductor Riccardo Muti!

He served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he just finished his last season after his 13-year tenure.

Italian-born conductor Riccardo Muti was born on this day.

Riccardo Muti studied piano at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella (Naples Conservatory of Music) with Vincenzo Vitale and later studied composition and conducting at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan where he studied with Bruno Bettinelli and Antonino Votto.

Well known for his interpretations of operatic and symphonic repertoire, Muti has held distinguished conducting positions with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic.

He served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he just finished his last season after his 13-year tenure.

In 2004, Muti founded the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, which is made up of young musicians selected by an international committee of more than 600 instrumentalists from all over Italy. The orchestra continues to perform repertoire ranging from baroque to 20th-century music.

Muti has received several international honors during his career — he is Cavaliere di Gran Croce of Italy, a recipient of the German Verdienstkreuz, Officer of the Legion of Honor in France, an honorary Knight Commander of the United Kingdom, received the Order of Merit from Ukraine, and was conferred the Praemium Imperiale for Music in Japan.

BEETHOVEN | SYMPHONY NO. 9 | RICCARDO MUTI & CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS | 2015