NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Director withdraws

CHICAGO

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra says music director Riccardo Muti is withdrawing from the rest of his fall residency because of illness.

Orchestra officials said Sunday that the Italian conductor is suffering from “extreme gastric distress” and must fly back to Milan to consult with doctors. Muti missed Saturday’s annual Symphony Ball, and the orchestra performed the sold-out show with a fill-in conductor.

The 69-year-old Muti was scheduled to conduct fall concerts, return for a winter series in February and then conduct two spring sequences. A spokeswoman says the orchestra hopes Muti can return for the rest of his residency.

Muti first conducted the orchestra more than three decades ago, and his return to Chicago had been highly anticipated.

Rapper TI, wife raise money for Alzheimer’s

ATLANTA

Facing fallout from a recent arrest, T.I. raised money Sunday for his family’s new Alzheimer’s disease charity and explained how the idea for it took shape during a previous period of legal trouble.

The rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., and his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Cottle, had a luncheon for the foundation called “For The Love Of Our Fathers,” which honors their fathers’ battles with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Grammy winner would not talk about his arrest last month on suspicion of drug offenses but said the inspiration for the foundation came in the aftermath of his 2007 arrest on weapons charges.

“It’s very, very personally close to our family,” said T.I., who served seven months in prison for the firearms offenses.

Cottle’s father, Charles Pope, has Alzheimer’s, an irreversible neurological disorder that causes its victims to lose their memory, become disoriented and suffer personality changes. No cure is known. T.I. said his father and grandmother also had the disease when they died.

The couple said the charity will raise funds for disease research and possibly offer relief to caregivers.

Nicknamed the “King of the South,” T.I. has sold millions of albums and created the hits “Whatever You Like” and “U Don’t Know Me.” He recently stared in “Takers,” a movie about an armored car robbery gone wrong, and is working on a new album.

Associated Press