Artists

• Klaus Mäkelä

  Conductor

  Klaus Mäkelä is chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, music director of Orchestre de Paris, and, beginning this fall, artistic partner of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra. An exclusive Decca Classics Artist, he has recorded the complete cycle of Sibelius’s symphonies with the Oslo Philharmonic as his first project for the label.

  Mäkelä’s third season as chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic features 11 contrasting programs, with repertoire ranging from Jean Baptiste Lully and Pietro Locatelli, Berg and Mahler, to Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Julia Perry. In the autumn of 2022, Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic embark on their second European tour, with performances in Germany, Belgium, and Austria with Sol Gabetta as soloist.

  For his second season as music director of the Orchestre de Paris, Mäkelä has chosen to spotlight composers Pascal Dusapin, Betsy Jolas, Jimmy López Bellido, Magnus Lindberg, and Kaija Saariaho, the latter featured through three different works. There is also a focus on the Ballets Russes that includes two key Diaghilev scores: Stravinsky’s The Firebird and The Rite of Spring. In the spring Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris tour throughout Europe with Janine Jansen as soloist.

  Mäkelä embarks on a long-term collaboration with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, whom he will join as its next chief conductor in 2027. For this season, the first in which he serves as artistic partner, they perform six programs, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, the Mozart Requiem, and Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, as well as premieres by López Bellido, Sauli Zinovjev, Alexander Raskatov, and Sally Beamish. On tour they performed the opening concert of the Musikfest Berlin and at the Koln Philharmonie.

  His 2022–23 season guest conducting engagements include debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, in addition to the New York Philharmonic, and returns to the US to conduct The Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

  Klaus Mäkelä studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula and cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen, and Hannu Kiiski. He has performed as soloist with several Finnish orchestras and as a chamber musician at the Verbier Festival, as well as with members of the Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

   

  Learn more about Klaus Mäkelä