Riccardo Muti, (born July 28, 1941) is an Italian conductor. He is the Music Director Designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and will officially start his contract in 2010. Muti was born in Naples, Italy, where his father was a doctor and an amateur singer; his mother was a professional singer. Muti studied piano in Naples at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Vincenzo Vitale. He was subsequently awarded a diploma in Composition and Conducting by the Conservatory "Giuseppe Verdi," Milan, where he studied with the composer Bruno Bettinelli and the conductor Antonino Votto. He has also studied composition with Nino Rota, whom he considers a mentor. He was unanimously awarded first place by the jury of the "Guido Cantelli" competition for conductors in Milan in 1967. From 1968 to 1980, Muti served as principal director and music director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.