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Riccardo Muti is this year’s conductor for one of the profession’s most prestigious gigs and one that went to Gustavo Dudamel in 2017.

On my first day in Salzburg, I headed for an 11 a.m. concert featuring Riccardo Muti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner’s monumental Eighth Symphony.

The eminent conductor Riccardo Muti, who worked with him at the Met on Verdi’s “Attila,” was so impressed that he asked Palumbo to collaborate last year on Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” for his final performances as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“With him, musically I felt at home,” Muti said.

She became Riccardo Muti’s assistant to the Salzburg Festival, then moved into conducting and from 2017-22 was music director of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie.