Riccardo Chailly was born in Milan in 1953 and began studying music with his father, the composer Luciano Chailly, before continuing his studies in conducting in Perugia and Milan as well as with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. He began his career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado at La Scala in Milan. Since the mid-1970s he has appeared as a guest artist at the world’s leading opera houses, festivals, and orchestras—including the Vienna, Berlin, and New York Philharmonics; the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals and the London Proms; and the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna Staats-oper, and Covent Garden in London. Chailly’s first musical directorship was with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he held until 1989; during this time he also served as principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic (1983–86) and music director of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna (1986–93). In 1988 Chailly was appointed principal conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He expanded its repertoire to include many 20th-century works and, during his 16-year tenure, led the orchestra in appearances at the major European festivals as well as on tours to Asia and to North and South America. In 2005 he moved to Leipzig to become director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, which he conducted for the first time in 1986 at the Salzburg Festival. Chailly’s more than 150 recordings have been awarded numerous prizes, including the Prix Herbert von Karajan given by the French Académie Nationale du Disque Lyrique for his complete discography. Currently he and the Gewandhaus Orchestra are recording a Bach cycle. Chailly is a Grand Official of the Italian Republic and a Knight of the Grand Cross. In 1996 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London; in 2009 he received the Mendelssohn Prize and, in 2010, the Zemlinsky Prize.
Debut with the LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) on 7 September 1988 leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in works by Wagenaar, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky.
August 2011