TV: Sneak Peek at Rehearsals of CSO's VOICES OF SILENCE Commemorating 9/11

Music Director Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the Chicago premiere of Voices from the Silence by renowned Italian film composer Ennio Morricone. Check out highlights below!

Voices from the Silence was written to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001, and first performed in the U.S. at the United Nations in 2007, conducted by the composer. Maestro Muti led the 2002 world premiere of the piece at the Ravenna Festival, which commissioned the work. Muti has said of Morricone, ?I know him well. I had the pleasure of conducting the premiere of his Voci Dal Silenzio. He is one of the world's best contemporary composers."

Thurs., Feb. 6 at 8 p.m.; Fri., Feb. 7 at 1:30 p.m.; Sat. Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. at Symphony Center, 220 S Michigan Avenue

Ennio Morricone has won numerous awards, including, a "Trustee Award" in January 2014 from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which awards the Grammys.

Born in Rome in 1928, Morricone was hired in 1964 by director Sergio Leone and began a long collaboration on what came to be known as "spaghetti Westerns," though his career has spanned most film genres from comedy to romance to horror. Morricone's more than 400 soundtracks, including A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Untouchables and Cinema Paradiso, pull from a diverse selection of musical styles-classical, jazz, pop, rock, electronic, avant-garde and traditional Italian folksongs.

A five-time Oscar nominee and the winner of a Grammy and two Golden Globes, Ennio Morricone has won BAFTA's Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music five times, is an eight-time winner of the Nastro D'Argento Award and a six-time winner of the David di Donatello Award, the leading film awards in his native Italy. Morricone has also received lifetime achievement awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, ASCAP, the Venice Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review. Nominated for five Oscars, he was honored by the Academy with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 and recently received the Recording Academy's Trustee Award for his work as a "true master."

About Riccardo Muti (www.RiccardoMutiMusic.com)
Riccardo Muti, born in Naples, Italy, is one of the preeminent conductors of our day. In 2010,when he became the tenth music director of the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), he had more than forty years of experience at the helm of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence (1968-80); the Philharmonia Orchestra in London (1972-82); the Philadelphia Orchestra (1980-1992); and Teatro alla Scala in Milan (1986-2005). He continues to be in demand as a guest conductor for other great orchestras and opera houses: the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and many others. He is an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic, which gave him its Golden Ring as a special sign of esteem and affection. He also is honorary director for life of the Rome Opera.

Muti has received innumerable honors from Italy, the United States, France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Israel, Spain, Russia, Sweden, and the Vatican as well as more than 20 honorary degrees from universities around the world. Passionate about teaching young musicians, Muti founded the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra in 2004. Through Le vie dell'Amicizia (The Paths of Friendship), a project of the Ravenna Festival in Italy, he has conducted in many of the world's most troubled areas in order to bring attention to and advocate for civic and social issues. In greater Chicago and around the globe, Muti demonstrates his strong commitment to sharing classical music broadly by regularly offering free concerts and rehearsals to the public and by performing in schools, prisons, and other community venues.

Riccardo Muti's vast catalog of recordings, numbering in the hundreds, ranges from the traditional symphonic and operatic repertoires to contemporary works. He also has written two books, Verdi, l'italiano (published in Italian and German) and Riccardo Muti: An Autobiography: First the Music, Then the Words, which has been published in several languages.

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