Klaus Mäkelä

Conductor / Cello

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“Here was something truly special: a conductor who revelled in freshly imagining each sound.”
(The Times, 2021)

Chief Conductor & Artistic Advisor: Oslo Philharmonic
Music Director: Orchestre de Paris
Artistic Partner: Concertgebouw Orchestra
Music Director Designate: Chicago Symphony Orchestra (from September 2027)

Klaus Mäkelä is Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic since 2020 and Music Director of Orchestre de Paris since 2021. As Artistic Partner of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he assumes the title of Chief Conductor at the start of the 2027/28 season. An exclusive Decca Classics Artist, Mäkelä has recorded the complete Sibelius Symphony cycle with the Oslo Philharmonic and two albums featuring Ballets Russes scores by Stravinsky and Debussy with Orchestre de Paris.

Mäkelä’s fourth season with the Oslo Philharmonic opened with residencies at the Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals and closes with guest performances at the Salzburg Festival and Musikfest Berlin. The orchestra’s most ambitious international season to date also includes a tour of Asia and concerts at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Paris Philharmonie and Vienna Konzerthaus. Season programme highlights include Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle with Jennifer Johnston and Gerald Finley, Shostakovich’s Symphony No.7 and Brahms’ Double Concerto, in which Mäkelä conducts and plays cello alongside violinist Daniel Lozakovich.

The Ballets Russes continues as a major focus of Mäkelä’s third season with the Orchestre de Paris, at home in the Paris Philharmonie, on tour to the States and on their second recording for Decca Classics, featuring Stravinsky’s Petrushka, Debussy’s Jeux and L’Après-midi d’un faune. Additional highlights of the 2023/24 season include a series of carte blanche concerts at the Louvre Museum in which Mäkelä conducts and plays cello with fellow orchestral musicians, as well as performances at major summer festivals including Granada, Aix-en-Provence, the BBC Proms and Lucerne.

With the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mäkelä conducts six programmes this season, concluding with Mahler’s Symphony No.3 and Bruckner’s Symphony No.5 as part of a complete cycle celebrating the 200^th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Guest performances include a residency at the Vienna Musikverein and the opening concert of the Dresden Festival.

In April 2024, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced Klaus Mäkelä as its next Music Director, starting 2027/28. As Music Director Designate, he commences artistic responsibilities this season and returns to Chicago to conduct the orchestra in Spring 2025.

As a cellist Mäkelä partners with members of the Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for special programmes and each summer performs at the Verbier Festival in chamber music concerts with fellow artists.

HarrisonParrott represents Klaus Mäkelä for worldwide general management.

“Mäkelä and the players fed off each other’s energy to produce a performance that one hopes was as breathtaking for them to play as it was for the audience to hear … The shattering end of the Rite brought the audience instantly to its feet.”

New York Classical Review, David Wright, March 2024

“The Oslo Philharmonic’s stripped-down opera performance (of Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle) let the music speak for itself … Mäkelä emphasised the different voices so clearly and distinctly that it was like seeing the score in front of you. Truly brilliant, world-class playing.”

Aftenposten, Maren Østravik, February 2024

“Mäkelä managed to reveal unsuspected details throughout (Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition), with the brilliant orchestra always as his excellent instrument. And when we arrived in amazement at The Great Gate of Kiev, the orchestral floodgates opened at exactly the right time. You felt moved by a performance by a legendary maestro from the past.”

Trouw, Peter van der Lint, January 2024

“… Mäkelä’s sure-footed gestures and the relief he gives to details and accents (in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker) never lose sight of the wonder of childhood, with its smiles and thrills. Throughout, the musicians of the Orchestre de Paris cultivate a transparency, a shimmer, a delicate breath that seems to draw Tchaikovsky’s score towards French music … and the conductor’s sense of storytelling is matched by his panache.”

Diapason, Francois Laurent, December 2023

“Throughout the evening, the Finnish conductor managed to balance the tension, speed and colours in a meaningful way … Throughout all six movements (of Mahler Symphony No. 3) he showed an iron control, using emphasis and contrasts sparingly so that all his choices really meant something.”

De Volkskrant, Jenny Camilleri, September 2023

“Makela’s close attention to colouring individual phrases, particularly in the strings, created a beautifully cantabile effect (in Sibelius Symphony no. 7). There was magic, even devilry, in the fast middle part, and scrupulous balance between the sections. Pure refreshment.”

The Times, Neil Fisher, August 2023

“Klaus Mäkelä’s Sixth by Shostakovich sounds haunting from the first bar of the opening Largo, gripping, intense … All shades of gray are filtered out, the music develops a surprising singularity, an inner glow, awakens associations with nature.

Der Tagesspiegel, Fredrik Hanssen, April 2023

“ … Mäkelä’s Tchaikovsky, while not profound, proved terrific … His style of leadership is both commanding and spontaneous. His imprint is personal.”

The Arts Journal, Joe Horowitz, December 2022