OI Magazine - N° 32 - October 2022

mance for his live recording of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. In March 2011, Riccardo Muti was selected as the recipient of the coveted Birgit Nilsson Prize, presented in a ceremony on October 13th 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 and in May 2011 he was awarded Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts. The award was presented the following autumn in Oviedo at a grand ceremony chaired by H.R.H. the Prince of Asturias. In July 2011 he was named honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic and in August 2011 honorary director for life at the Rome Opera. In May 2012, he was awarded the highest Papal honor: the Knight of the Grand Cross First Class of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI. His love for his Southern roots brings him back to Puglia in 2014 to inaugurate the reborn “Mercadante Theater” in Altamura (BA). In 2016 he was honored by Japanese Government with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star. He has received more than 20 honorary degrees from the most important universities of the world. Muti’s ardor and constant commitment also brought him to devote himself to the training of young musicians: in 2015 the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy for young conductors, répétiteurs and singers was realized: the first edition took place at Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna. Talented young musicians and an audience of music-lovers coming from all over the world took part. The Academy has the purpose to pass on to young musicians Riccardo Muti’s experience and teachings and to make the audience understand in all its complexity the journey that leads to the realization of an opera. Maria BRUNO 26 OI magazine

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