Conductor Riccardo Muti has once again reopened the Italian musical season in his adopted hometown of Ravenna after another — and if all goes well perhaps final — round of pandemic closures.

The CSO will return in May and June for a slate of performances, the orchestra’s first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Riccardo Muti has appointed Jessie Montgomery as the Mead Composer-in-Residence. Montgomery will succeed the CSO’s current composer-in-residence, Missy Mazzoli, in July of this year.

The CSO’s music director made a remote return to the Windy City on Wednesday to lead an online masterclass with fellows from Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative.

It’s been a strange, difficult year for the music world, which is all the more reason to celebrate musical excellence.