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• Dutoit in focus: the career of the living orchestral legend

The appearance of legendary maestro Charles Dutoit is an extraordinary event for the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. On September 23 we not only experience the return of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but the first local appearance of Maestro Dutoit.

With over 170 recordings currently appearing on over 30 CDs, Dutoit is one of the true giants of the contemporary classical scene. His recordings have won over 40 major international awards, and his Grammy Award winning recording of Debussy’s Pellas and Melisande is a legendary item among opera fans. Yet, it is a conductor from the podium of live music that he is best known.

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland in October of 1936, he graduated from the Geneva Conservatory in his native country. This won him a scholarship to the Music Academy in Sienna, Italy. In his early days as conductor, he was able to work with Switzerland’s own legendary maestro, Ernest Ansermet. Yet, his full time professional career began in 1957 as a viola player.

Conducting was his calling. and by 1960, he was a regular guest conductor at the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Lusanne Chamber Orchestra. By 1967, he had his own orchestra at Radio Zurich, and by the end of the decade, he had succeeded Paul Kletzki as conductor of the Bern Symphony. During his eleven year tenure as head of the Bern Symphony, the guest conducting offers came from all over the world.

Urbana native Paul Merkelo is the First Chair Trumpet of the Montreal Symphony, and was hired by Dotuit. This 1986 graduate of Urbana High School, began his full-time professional career with the Montreal Symphony and played for the Maestro through many concerts and recording sessions. When asked what made him special as a conductor, Merkelo answered, “Dutoit has a charisma and flair especially in French music that is exacting, precise and elegant.”

He was equally descriptive about what made his recording sessions special — ”When we recorded we did many full takes of movements. That lends itself to more fluid playing--the orchestra was and is always in form when it counts. That is part of our tradition.”

Despite winning over 40 international recording awards, mostly at his 25 years with the Montreal Symphony, he left the MSO in April of 2002 after a dispute that was mostly focused on the musicians union. His departure as Music Director from the Orchestre National de France in 2001 left similar bad feelings on both sides. His brilliance from the podium kept him employed constantly, especially as conductor and music advisor of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In April of 2007, he was named as the next Music Director of Britain’s Royal Philharmonic, a post he will assume in 2009. In the meantime, he tours the musical world as a guest conductor, and as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra makes its annual stop at Krannert on September 23, we will be treated to a first ever evening of music from this master maestro. The evening will feature some of great high spots of the romantic tradition of 19th century European music with such composers as Lalo, Rossini and Tchaikovsky on the bill. Before the Brits take him full time, don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity to hear one of the great orchestras led by one of the great conductors at our own Krannert Center.