Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, the former music director of Milan’s La Scala Opera House and the Philadelphia Orchestra, has been appointed the 10th music director of Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, becoming the first Italian to head the 117-year-old ensemble.

According to the web edition of the Chicago Tribune, Muti, who has led many of the world's most important orchestras, signed a five-year deal with Chicago Symphony and is set to start his activity in September of the 2010-2011 season. He is expected to conduct a minimum of 10 weeks a season and lead tours.

"I would like to make this last engagement as music director in my life something that can enrich people," Mr. Muti said Monday in his first interview after signing the contract.

"I don't come to Chicago because I want something or have anything in mind for the future. I come to Chicago for the pleasure of making music with this great virtuoso orchestra and to make this tour," he was quoted by Chicagotribune.com as saying.

The announcement of his appointing was made early Monday by CSO Association President Deborah Card, nearly three years after pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim retired. The position remained vacant since.

A Naples, Italy, native, Muti, who led the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1980 to 1992, made his debut with the CSO at the Ravinia Festival in 1973 and conducted the Chicago Symphony during a monthlong residency in September.

Rumors that he was being considered for the top post began circulating after Muti led the orchestra in a sold-out opening night gala for the 2007-2008 season and later a triumphant European tour.

"From the moment maestro Muti took the podium earlier this season, it was immediately evident that something truly special was taking place," Card said in a statement. "The connection between maestro Muti and our musicians was electric, and music-making was astonishing."

Muti turned down the music directorship of the New York Philharmonic in 2000 and had been expected to figure in the search for a successor to Lorin Maazel, whose contract there expires in 2009.

"From my years in Philadelphia I know exactly what I'm expected to do as music director of an American orchestra," Muti said. "To be music director of an American orchestra doesn't mean only to try to make good music with the orchestra for the audience that comes to the hall but to serve the community."