Photo: Rob Croes for Anefo / CC BY-SA 3.0 nl (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Riccardo Chailly is a conductor whose career reads like a map of the great European orchestras, and that breadth is exactly why I take him seriously. The Concertgebouw, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, now La Scala and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, he has held the chairs that matter. What I admire is his refusal to be only a museum keeper. His Mahler and his Italian opera both feel rethought rather than inherited. The data here mislabels him as American, but he is Milanese to the core, and you hear that operatic sensibility even in his symphonic work. He is one of the conductors I trust to make familiar scores sound newly argued.
Overview
Riccardo Chailly (Italian pronunciation: [rikˈkardo ʃʃaˈ(j)i], French: [ʃɑji]; born 20 February 1953) is an Italian conductor. He is currently music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and of La Scala. Prior to this, he held chief conducting positions at the Gewandhausorchester (2005–2016); the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (1988–2004); the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (1982–1988); and the Teatro Comunale o…
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Riccardo Chailly
- Name (Japanese)
- リッカルド・シャイー
- Reading
- りっかるど・しゃいー
- Born
- February 20, 1953 (age 73)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Snake
- Origin
- Milan, province of Milan, Italy
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- conductor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- Feltrinelli Prize
- 2009 Leipzig International Mendelssohn Prize
- 1998 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
- 2012 Echo Klassik – Conductor of the Year
- 1998 Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
- 1994 Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Conductor — see all → · More people from Italy →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.