Maestro Riccardo Muti's deeply rewarding artistic collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will continue beyond next season. Muti announced on Monday that he will extend his tenure as music director of the CSO after his current contract expires in August 2015.
His new contract will extend through 2020, Jay Henderson, chairman of the board of trustees, and Deborah Rutter, president of the CSO, confirmed at a press conference on Monday.
"I love Chicago, and I love making music with the extraordinary musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra," Muti said during the press conference. "We have a symbiosis, a warm and unique way of working together, and I look forward to continuing this relationship."
"Chicago is my home away from home, and I am very glad it will continue to be so," Muti continued.
Chairman Jay Henderson said, "We are thrilled that Maestro Muti has said 'yes' to staying with us and to continuing to build on the great legacy that began in 2010."
Some high points of Muti's tenure as music director include the CSO's first worldwide live video webcast, of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem on October 10, 2013, which drew more than 100,000 viewers around the world.
Muti is considered one of the greatest living interpreters of Verdi. His debut recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, a 2010 release of Verdi's Requiem, won two Grammy Awards. In the fall of 2013, the CSO released Muti's second recording with the Orchestra and Chorus: Verdi's Otello.
Both are on the CSO's independent label, CSO Resound.
During his time with the CSO, Muti has performed a wide range of the major orchestral repertoire as well as new and commissioned works, such as those of the CSO's composers-in-residence Anna Clyne and Mason Bates.
Muti said he looks forward to building on these successes with the CSO during the newly-announced 2014-15 season and beyond.
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