With the Oslo Philharmonic Klaus Mäkelä opens the 2025 / 26 season with Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 and closes with Magnus Lindberg’s 1985 tour de force, Kraft. Additional highlights include a January tour and residencies in Hamburg, Vienna, Paris and Essen with performances of Shostakovich Symphony No. 8, Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Suite and both the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius violin concertos, with soloist Lisa Batiashvili.
Mäkielä’s fifth season with the Orchestre de Paris features wide-ranging programmes, from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis to Pascal Dusapin’s Opera Oratorio Antigone. With a continued focus on French repertoire and contemporary music they also perform Bizet’s Symphony in C and Franck’s Symphony in D minor, as well as new works by Guillaume Connesson, Joan Tower, Anders Hillborg, Ellen Reid and Sauli Zinovjev.
With the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mäkelä’s performances at the 2025 BBC Proms and Salzburg Festival are followed by an extensive tour of South Korea and Japan in the fall. At home they celebrate the 50th anniversary of the traditional Christmas Matinée TV broadcasts and at the 2026 Baden Baden Easter Festival commence an annual residency, taking over from the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in four residencies at Symphony Center this sesaon and leads a U.S. tour, making his first appearance with the CSO at Carnegie Hall in February, performing Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen and Ricjhard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben. He returns to the States in Summer 2026 for his Ravinia Festival debut, leading the CSO in two programmes.
In the 2025 / 26 season Mäkelä appears as guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker. As a cellist he partners with members of the Orchestre de Paris and Concertgebouw Orchestra.
