Representatives from the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, including Director Tina Cervone, attended Conductor Riccardo Muti's February 25 press conference, held in Orchestra Hall's lovely Grainger Ballroom.
Maestro Muti spoke about his vision for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's future, qualifying his remarks by saying that in Italy visions are usually reserved for the most important saints. Here are excerpts from an article published in I-Italy. Follow the link if you'd like to read the entire piece.
"Maestro Muti set a relaxed, jovial tone at the press conference inaugurating his tenure with the CSO when he declined to stand and speak behind a podium, saying that he wasn't a priest. Preferring to stand informally behind a table, when he was asked to sit so that the TV cameras could capture him, Maestro Muti joked that people at home were seeing the most important thing - one of his best ties, bought in Naples. To much laughter, he then untucked his tie from his vest so that everyone could admire it.
The relaxed, warm atmosphere of the press conference didn’t stop serious subjects from being discussed. Maestro Muti spoke of music’s power to transform the world for the better by touching hearts and souls, providing for a bond that transcends cultural differences. In fact, Maestro Muti has organized musical outreaches in prisons, and spoke of an outreach at which he played the piano for prisoners, choosing composers who had suffered much and died young, like Schumann and Schubert. By relating stories such as this one with great feeling, all of us in the audience were reminded of music's spiritual power, the very thing that had brought all of us there and that united us."