• Conductor Riccardo Chailly, 1953
• Conductor Charles Édouard Dutoit, 1936

   

Chailly was born in Milan in a musical family. He studied composition with his father, Luciano Chailly. Chailly studied at the music conservatories in Perugia and Milan. He later studied conducting with Franco Ferrara. In his youth, Chailly also played the drums in a rhythm - and - blues band.

At age twenty, Chailly became assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado at La Scala, where he made his conducting debut there in 1978. From 1982 to 1988, Chailly was chief conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and from 1983 to 1986 principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1986 to 1993, he led the Teatro Comunale of Bologna.

Chailly made his debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam in 1985. From 1988 to 2004, Chailly was chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (KCO), where he dedicated himself to performances of the standard symphonic tradition, notably Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler, with which the orchestra made its name but also significantly broadened the repertoire with 20th century and contemporary music. Among notable projects, Chailly led the 1995 Mahler Festival that celebrated the 100th anniversary of Mahler's first concert at the Concertgebouw. Chailly also conducted opera in Amsterdam, both at the KCO's annual Christmas Matinee concert as well as at De Nederlandse Opera (DNO), where his final opera production in Amsterdam was DNO's staging of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo. One report stated that Chailly decided in 2002 to leave the KCO when, at his last contract negotiations, the orchestra offered him an extension for two years rather than five.

In 1986, Chailly conducted the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig for the first time, at the Salzburg Festival, after Herbert von Karajan had introduced Chailly to the orchestra. His next guest conducting appearance with the Leipzig orchestra was in 2001, and after an additional appearance, he was named the 19th Kapellmeister of the orchestra. In August 2005, he officially became the chief conductor of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and general music director (GMD) of Oper Leipzig. His initial Leipzig contract was through 2010. In May 2008, he extended his contract with the Gewandhausorchester to 2015. However, he concurrently resigned as GMD of the Oper Leipzig, reportedly after conflict over the hiring of personnel without his consultation.

In May 2011, Chailly organized an international Mahler festival in Leipzig, adding that composer to the city's pantheon of Bach, Wagner and Mendelssohn. Mahler had been junior conductor at the Leipzig Oper 1886 – 88 and had composed his first symphony there. Chailly invited ten different orchestras to participate in an event that was telecast worldwide, bookending the series himself with epic performances of the second and eighth symphonies – "one of the great Mahler 8s", in the words of the Mahler biographer, Norman Lebrecht.

Chailly became the first music director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (La Verdi) in 1999, and held the post until 2005. He now has the title of Conductor Laureate with La Verdi.

Chailly has an exclusive recording contract with Decca, and his recordings with Decca include complete cycles of the symphonies of Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner. Other notable achievements include recordings of Stravinsky, Varese and Hindemith. More recently, with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chailly has led recordings of Felix Mendelssohn, Bach, Johannes Brahms and the Robert Schumann symphonies in the re-orchestrations by Gustav Mahler. His past recordings with American orchestras included Shostakovich: The Dance Album with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps with the Cleveland Orchestra. In October 2011 Chailly released 'a set of the nine symphonies and a generous number of overtures' by Ludwig van Beethoven on Decca, played by the Gewandhausorchester.

Chailly has been married twice. He has a daughter, Luana, by his first marriage to Anahi Carfi, and a stepson from his second and current marriage to Gabriella Terragni.

Dutoit was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, studied there and graduated from the Geneva Conservatory where he won first prize in conducting, then he went to the Music Academy in Siena by the invitation of Alceo Galliera. In his younger days, he frequently attended Ernest Ansermet's rehearsals and had a personal acquaintance with him. He also worked with Herbert von Karajan at Lucerne as a member of the festival youth orchestra and studied with Charles Munch at Tanglewood. Dutoit began his professional music career in 1957 as a viola player with various orchestras across Europe and South America. In January 1959, he made his debut as a professional conductor with an orchestra of Radio Lausanne and Martha Argerich. From 1959 he was a guest conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. After this, he was the conductor for Radio Zurich until 1967, when he took over the Bern Symphony Orchestra from Paul Kletzki, where he stayed for eleven years.

While head of the Bern Symphony, he also conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico from 1973 to 1975, and Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony from 1975 to 1978. Dutoit was principal guest conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra in the early 1980s.

In 1977, Dutoit became the Artistic Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM). During his tenure, the recording profile and reputation of the OSM increased. He has earned more than 40 international awards and distinctions, including two Grammy Awards (USA), several Juno Awards (Canada), the Grand Prix du Président de la République (France), the Prix mondial du disque de Montreux (Switzerland), the Amsterdam Edison Award, the Japan Record Academy Award and the German Music Critics' Award. He and the OSM made many recordings for the Decca / London label.

Although a pre-eminent cultural figure in a city proud of its Old World pedigree, Dutoit was unpopular among his own musicians in Montreal for his harsh management style, apparently using fear and insults as motivation, to the point where some members broke down in tears after rehearsals. By April 2002 dissonance was festering, and after initiating dismissal procedures against two musicians who had stood up to him some players called in the Québec Musicians Guild. The union went public; its president saying that Dutoit had harassed his musicians for at least 10 years, treating them with derision and condescension. Upon hearing this Dutoit abruptly resigned, never to conduct in Montreal again.

Dutoit first conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1980. From 1990 to 1999, he was music director of the orchestra's summer concerts at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. Since 1990, he has been the artistic director and principal conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer festival in Saratoga Springs, New York, a post he relinquished in August 2010. In 1991, he was made an Honorary Citizen of the city of Philadelphia.

Since 1990, Dutoit has directed the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. From 1991 to 2001, Dutoit was Music Director of the Orchestre National de France, with whom he made a number of critically lauded recordings and toured extensively. In 1996, he was appointed principal conductor of Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra. In 1997, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is also one of a handful of non-Canadian citizens to be a Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Québec.

In February 2007, he was named chief conductor and artistic adviser of The Philadelphia Orchestra, for a contract of four years, effective September 2008. In April 2007, Dutoit was named principal conductor and artistic director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as of 2009. Since July 2009 Dutoit has also served as the music director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland.

Dutoit shuns publicity and protects his private life from the media. He has been married four times, including a marriage to the world renowned concert pianist Martha Argerich, to the economist Marie - Josée Drouin, and to Canadian violinist Chantal Juillet. His first marriage was to Ruth Cury, by whom he has a son, Ivan, who lives in Santa Monica, California, with his family. He also has a daughter, Anne - Catherine, by his marriage to Argerich.