Riccardo Muti

Born in Naples, Riccardo Muti studied piano at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Vincenzo Vitale, graduating with distinction. He was subsequently awarded a diploma in Composition and Conducting from the Conservatory "Giuseppe Verdi" Milan, where he studied under the guidance of Bruno Bettinelli and Antonino Votto.

He first came to the attention of critics and the public in 1967, when he was unanimously awarded the first place by the prestigious jury of the "Guido Cantelli" competition for conductors in Milan. The following year he was appointed Music Director of the "Maggio Musicale Fiorentino," a position he maintained until 1980. In 1971 Muti was invited by Herbert von Karajan to conduct at the Salzburg Festival, the first of many occasions, which led to a celebration of forty years of artistic collaboration with the Austrian festival in 2010. During the 1970s, he was Music Director of the London Philharmonia (1972 to 1982) succeeding Otto Klemperer. From 1980 to 1992, he inherited the position of Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from Eugene Ormandy.

From 1986 to 2005, he was Music Director of the Teatro alla Scala and under his direction important projects were undertaken such as the Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy and the Wagner Ring Cycle. Alongside the classics of the repertoire, he brought many rarely performed and neglected works to light, including pieces from the Neapolitan school of the XVIII Century, as well as operas by Gluck, Cherubini, and Spontin. Most recently Poulenc's "Les dialogues des Carmélites" earned Muti the prestigious "Abbiati Critics' Prize". The long period spent as the Musical Director of the organization La Scala culminated in the triumphant re-opening of the restored theatre La Scala with Antonio Salieri's "Europa Riconosciuta" on December 7th, 2004.

His contribution to Verdi's repertoire is incredible: he conducted Ernani, Nabucco, I Vespri Siciliani, La Traviata, Attila, Don Carlos, Falstaff, Rigoletto, Macbeth, La Forza del Destino, Il Trovatore, Otello, Aida, Un ballo in Maschera, i Due Foscari, I Masnadieri.

His tenure as Music Director has been the longest at Teatro alla Scala.

Over the course of his extraordinary career, Riccardo Muti has conducted most of the important orchestras in the world: from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Bayerischer Rundfunk, from the New York Philharmonic to the Orchestre National de France, as well as the Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra to which he is linked by particularly close and important ties, and with which he has appeared at the Salzburg Festival since 1971. When Muti was invited to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in a concert celebrating its 150 years, he was presented with the Golden Ring by the orchestra as a sign of special appreciation and affection, awarded to only a few selected conductors. He conducted the prestigious and extremely famous New Year's Concert in Vienna four times, in 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2004.

In April 2003, the French national radio channel France Musique broadcast the "Journée Riccardo Muti", consisting of 14 hours of his operatic and symphonic recordings made with all the orchestras he has conducted throughout his career. On December 14th, 2003 he conducted the long-awaited opening concert of the newly renovated Opera House "La Fenice" in Venice.

In 2004, Riccardo Muti founded the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, which is composed of young musicians selected by an international committee among more than 600 instrumentalists from all over Italy.

Maestro's recording activities span the classical symphonic and operatic repertories, as well as contemporary works , which have received recognition in the form of many prizes.

Riccardo Muti's social and civic conscience as an artist is demonstrated by concerts in a number of places symbolising our troubled past and contemporary history, which he has conducted as part of the "Le vie dell'Amicizia" (The Paths of Friendship) project, produced by Ravenna Festival. These include Sarajevo (1997), Beirut (1998), Jerusalem (1999), Moscow (2000), Yerevan and Istanbul (2001), New York (2002), Cairo (2003), Damascus (2004), El Diem, Tunisia (2005), Meknes (2006), Lebanon (2007), Mazara del Vallo (2008), Sarajevo (2009), Trieste (2010), Nairobi (2011), Ravenna (2012), Mirandola (2013) and Redipuglia (2104) with La Scala Philharmonic and Chorus, the Orchestra and Chorus of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the "Musicians of Europe United," a group made up of the top players of Europe's major orchestras, and most recently with the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra.

Innumerable honors have been bestowed on Riccardo Muti over the course of his career. He has been made Cavaliere di Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana and received the Verdienstkreuz from Germany; recently he received the decoration of Officer of the Legion of Honor from the French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a private ceremony held at the Élysée Palace. He was also made an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in Britain. The Salzburg Mozarteum awarded him its silver medal for his contribution to Mozart's music, and in Vienna he was elected an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle and the Wiener Staatsoper. The Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship, and the State of Israel has honored him with the Wolf Prize for the arts. He has received honorary degrees from many universities in Italy and abroad.

He conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the opening concert for the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth in Salzburg at the Großes Festspielhaus. In 2015 the continuous collaboration between Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic celebrates 44 years.

During 2007 Whitsun Festival in Salzburg, with the Cherubini Orchestra he began a five-year project dedicated to the rediscovery and the valorization of the operatic and sacred musical heritage of the Neapolitan School of the 18th Century.

In September 2010 he became Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was named Musician of the Year by Musical America. In February 2011 Riccardo Muti was awarded two Grammy Awards at the 53rd annual awards ceremony for his live recording of Verdi's Messa da Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. His recording won the Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance awards. In March 2011, Riccardo Muti was selected as the recipient of the prestigious Birgit Nilsson Prize, presented in a ceremony on October 13 at the Royal Opera in Stockholm in the presence of H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf and H.M. Queen Silvia. In April 2011, he received the Opera News Award in New York. In May 2011 he was awarded the prestigious Spanish "Prince of Asturias" Prize for the Arts. The award was presented last autumn in Oviedo at a grand ceremony chaired by H.R.H. the Prince of Asturias. In July 2011 he was named an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic and in August 2011 he was named an honorary director for life at the Rome Opera.

In May 2012, he was awarded the highest Papal honor: he was made a Knight of the Grand Cross of the First Class of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI. In November 2012, he was awarded the "Vittorio De Sica" Prize for his contributions to music.

Maestro Muti has been awarded many honorary degrees: just to mention the last one, in 2014 he received an honorary degree from the Northwestern University of Chicago.

In July 2015, Riccardo Muti's desire to devote even more to the training of young musicians was realized: the first edition of the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy for young conductors, répétiteurs and singers took place with great acclaim at Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna and talented young musicians, as well as an audience of music-lovers from around the world participated. The Academy has as purpose to pass on to young musicians Riccardo Muti's experience and lessons and to make the audience understand in its full complexity the path to accomplish an opera production.