Riccardo Azzurri | id

Born in Forlì (Italy) in 1951, RICCARDO ZAPPA is widely recognized as the greatest Italian acoustic guitarist. For five consecutive years he was voted the best in the poll promoted by the famous monthly magazine "Guitar Club". After that, he was declared to be no longer eligible for nomination. He studied with classical guitarist Miguel Abloniz (died in 2002), and was very interested in research, for instance on electronic instruments and all new technologies applied to sound. He has created, with delicacy and precision, an elegant fusion between classical and modern music like no one else has done before in...

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...