This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization and submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.

Music Director Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will make a five-city, eight-concert East Coast tour Feb. 7-17, including an opening performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and two concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York.

It will be the first appearance by Muti and the CSO together at the Kennedy Center, as well as the Orchestra’s first performance at the venue since 2005 and Muti’s first time there since 2009.

The concert also marks Muti’s 350th concert leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since his podium debut in 1973. The tour continues with a two-day residency in New York City at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 9 and 10, presented by Carnegie Hall.

Muti and the Orchestra make their first appearances together at two venues in Florida: Frances Pew Hayes Hall in Naples on Feb. 12 and at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach during a two-day residency on Feb. 14 and 15.

Muti and the CSO return to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the first time since 2015 to conclude the East Coast tour with a two-day residency on the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus on Feb. 16 and 17.

Repertoire for the CSO’s February tour features a diverse set of works including Verdi’s Overture to I vespri siciliani, Stravinsky’s Scherzo Fantastique, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, which was performed to critical acclaim as part of Muti and the Orchestra’s October 2017 West Coast tour concerts and May 2017 subscription concerts featuring the complete Brahms symphonies in Chicago.

Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer, with mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine, who makes her CSO debut in February 2018 subscription performances of this work in Chicago, is featured on tour programs in New York (Feb. 9), West Palm Beach, Fla. (Feb. 15), and Chapel Hill, N.C. (Feb. 16).

CSO Principal Clarinet Stephen Williamson, who performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with Muti and the CSO during several stops on the West Coast tour in October, plays the work on the East Coast tour in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 15.

New works by two American composers – Pulitzer Prize–winner Jennifer Higdon and CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Samuel Adams – are featured in the East Coast tour programs.

Higdon’s new Low Brass Concerto receives its East Coast premiere at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 9. The new concerto was commissioned by the CSO and co-commissioned by the Philadelphia and Baltimore symphony orchestras and written for the Orchestra’s renowned low brass section comprised of Jay Friedman (principal trombone), Michael Mulcahy (trombone), Charlie Vernon (bass trombone) and Gene Pokorny (principal tuba).

The Higdon work is also featured on tour programs in Naples, Fla., on Feb. 12, in West Palm Beach on Feb. 14 and in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Feb. 16. These performances follow the world premiere concerts of the Low Brass Concerto on Feb. 1-3 at Symphony Center in Chicago.

Another new CSO-commissioned work, many words of love, by CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Samuel Adams, receives its East Coast premiere in the tour’s opening concert on Feb. 7 at the Kennedy Center, followed by additional performances in New York (Feb. 10) and in Chapel Hill (Feb. 17). The work received its world premiere by the CSO led by Muti on March 16, 2017, at Symphony Center in Chicago.

Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been touring domestically and internationally since the beginning of its history. First traveling to Canada in 1892, the Orchestra has since embarked on 60 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.