Maestro Maazel to Replace Maestro Muti for Part of CSO Asia Tour

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 17, 2013

Press Contacts: Rachelle Roe

LORIN MAAZEL TO REPLACE MUSIC DIRECTOR RICCARDO MUTI ON PORTION OF UPCOMING CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA TOUR TO ASIA Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO CHICAGO—The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) announced today that Music Director Riccardo Muti is unable to participate in the Orchestra’s upcoming tour to Asia.

Substituting for Maestro Muti on this tour is Lorin Maazel (music director, Munich Philharmonic) for the concerts in Hong Kong, China and Korea. The CSO is working closely with the presenter in Taiwan and expects to announce plans for the concerts in Taipei within 24 hours.

After returning to Italy last week suffering from the flu, Maestro Muti sought further medical care. He was subsequently diagnosed with an inguinal hernia, which requires surgical treatment as soon as possible. His doctors determined that to delay the surgery until after the scheduled tour to Asia could lead to complications.

CSOA President Deborah F. Rutter commented, “The thoughts and good wishes of the entire CSO family are with our beloved Maestro Muti as he undergoes surgery. Naturally, we are disappointed that he was not able to lead the Orchestra here in Chicago and will be unable to join us on our tour beginning next week. However, we completely understand that this is a health situation beyond his control and eagerly await his return to Chicago in April. The CSO family is deeply grateful to Maestro Maazel for assisting the CSO on this tour.”

In a written statement from Italy, Maestro Muti said, “I feel very sad, frustrated and upset to leave my wonderful musicians and audiences in Chicago and on this very important tour that I was expecting with great anticipation. I look forward to returning to Chicago in April when we can once again make beautiful music together.”

Repertoire for this tour includes two programs: Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony—which replaces originally scheduled music by Stravinsky and Busoni—and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 on one program and Verdi’s Overture to I vespri siciliani, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 (Italian) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) on the other.

American conductor Lorin Maazel’s association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra dates back to his debut concerts with them 40 years ago, in February 1973. In the decades since, he has led the Orchestra in a wide range of repertoire from Brahms, Berlioz and Schumann to Mahler, Strauss and Bartok, as well as works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Sibelius. In 2000, Maazel and the CSO gave the American premiere of his own composition, Farewells, as part of his 70th birthday celebrations, and his programs with the CSO have featured works by living American composers including Aaron Jay Kernis and Augusta Read Thomas.

There are no changes to the tour performance schedule, which includes two concerts in Taipei, Taiwan at the Chiang Kai-Shek National Concert Hall; two concerts in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival; one concert each in Shanghai (Oriental Art Centre), Beijing (National Center for the Performing Arts) and Tianjin (Tianjin Grand Theater) in China; and two in Seoul, South Korea at the Seoul Arts Center to conclude the tour.

Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO. For over five decades, LORIN MAAZEL has been one of the world’s most esteemed and sought-after conductors. In spring 2011, he completed his fifth and final season as the inaugural music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. Music director of the New York Philharmonic from 2002 to 2009, he assumes the same post with the Munich Philharmonic at the start of the 2012/13 season. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of a new festival based on his farm property in Virginia, the Castleton Festival, launched to exceptional acclaim in 2009 and expanding its activities nationally and internationally in 2011/12 and beyond. Maestro Maazel is also a highly regarded composer, with a wideranging catalogue of works written primarily over the last dozen or so years. His first opera, 1984, based on George Orwell’s literary masterpiece, received its world premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in May 2005. Maestro Maazel has conducted nearly 200 orchestras in no fewer than 7,000 opera and concert performances. He has made over 300 recordings, including symphonic cycles/complete orchestral works of Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Mahler, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Richard Strauss, winning ten Grands Prix du Disques.

A musical force in Chicago and around the world, the CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA has been consistently hailed as one of the finest international orchestras since its founding in 1891. In collaboration with renowned conductors and guest artists on the international music scene, the CSO performs well over 150 concerts each year at its home, Symphony Center, and in summer residency at the Ravinia Festival.

With the launch of The Institute for Learning, Access, and Training, the CSO engages more than 200,000 Chicago-area residents annually. Music lovers outside Chicago enjoy the sounds of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra not only through its Chicago Symphony Orchestra Radio Broadcast Series and best-selling recordings on its acclaimed in-house record label CSO Resound, but also through sold-out tour performances in the United States and around the globe. Bank of America is the global sponsor of the CSO. For more information about the CSO, visit cso.org.

Tour Itinerary Chiang Kai-Shek National Concert Hall Taipei, Taiwan

Friday, January 25, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra TBD, conductor

Chiang Kai-Shek National Concert Hall Taipei, Taiwan

Saturday, January 26, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra TBD, conductor

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Hong Kong

Monday, January 28, 2013, 8 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor MOZART Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K.551 (Jupiter) BRAHMS Symphony No. 2 in D Major. Op. 73

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Hong Kong

Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 8 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor VERDI Overture to I vespri siciliani MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 (Italian) BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica)

Oriental Art Centre Shanghai, China

Thursday, January 31, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor VERDI Overture to I vespri siciliani MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 (Italian) BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica)

National Center for the Performing Arts Beijing, China

Sunday, February 3, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor MOZART Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K.551 (Jupiter) BRAHMS Symphony No. 2 in D Major. Op. 73

Tianjin Grand Theatre Tianjin, China

Monday, February 4, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor VERDI Overture to I vespri siciliani MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 (Italian) BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica)

Seoul Arts Center Seoul, South Korea

Wednesday, February 6, 2013, 8 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor MOZART Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K.551 (Jupiter) BRAHMS Symphony No. 2 in D Major. Op. 73

Seoul Arts Center Seoul, South Korea

Thursday, February 7, 2013, 8 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Lorin Maazel, conductor VERDI Overture to I vespri siciliani MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 (Italian) BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica)

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