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Muti named music director of Chicago Symphony

Riccardo Muti has been named music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Riccardo Muti has been named music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The Italian maestro has signed a five-year contract starting in the 2010-11 season to lead the orchestra in a minimum of ten weeks each year.

Muti, 66, was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1980 to 1992.

From 1986 to 2005 he was music director of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and has spent the last few years as a guest conductor. In 2007 he was given a role with the New York Philhamonic much like that of a principal guest conductor.

Muti and the Chicago Symphony do not have an extensive history with each other.

"...The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, after an absence of 32 years, re-entered my life last September and the immediate connection with the wonderful musicians of the CSO made a very powerful impression," Muti said in a prepared statement. "This musical strength just kept growing during our successful European tour. Sometimes when you least expect it, the timing and the situation unite."