At the tender age of 28, Klaus Mäkelä has already picked up a collection of achievements that would make an artist 20 years his senior envious. And it's no exaggeration to say he's just getting started.
The Helsinki-born conductor and cellist was named CSO music director designate in April 2024. He'll step into that role at the same time that he dons another of classical music's most prestigious titles — music director of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra — in 2027.
His whirlwind career shows no signs of stopping, so we would like to retrace Mäkelä's steps and enjoy his quick — and well-earned — ascent into the a-list of classical music.
Note, the maestro's young age makes him an artist of many firsts. We've indicated achievements that make him the youngest with an asterisk.
January 17, 1996
Klaus Mäkelä born in Helsinki, Finland.
His family is musical: both his parents are music teachers. His father is a cellist and his mother is a pianist. His younger sister is a ballet dancer.
~2003
Begins cello and conducting.
~2007
Mäkelä begins studying conducting with Jorma Panula, the dean of Finnish conductors, who's also mentored Finnish conductors Susanna Mälkki and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
December 2017
Klaus Mäkelä is named principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.*
October 2018
Klaus Mäkelä named chief conductor designate of the Oslo Philharmonic, effective 2020-2021. It's the maestro's first chief conductorship.*
2019
First season as artistic director of Turku Music Festival, the oldest continually running music festival in the conductor's native Finland.
June 2020
Klaus Mäkela named Orchestre de Paris music director, effective 2022-2023.*
March 2021
Mäkelä signs exclusive recording contract with Decca, becoming just the third conductor in the label’s 95-year history with an exclusive contract. (Decca's most recent conductor signing had been Riccardo Chailly in 1978.)
March 2022
Debut album is released: Sibelius with the Oslo Philharmonic.
April 2022
The young maestro makes his Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducting debut leading music of Anders Hillborg, Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Prokofiev.
June 2022
Klaus Mäkela named artistic partner and music director designate of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He's the second-youngest appointee (only Willem Mengelberg — appointed age 24 — was younger).
March 2024
Mäkelä makes his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the Orchestre de Paris in an all-Stravinsky program of The Firebird and The Rite of Spring.
April 2, 2024
Klaus Mäkelä named Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director.*
April 4, 2024
Mäkelä makes first concert appearances with CSO following his appointment as music director designate.
April 2025
Mäkelä will return to the CSO to conduct Mahler 3.
May 2025
Mäkelä will conduct the CSO and orchestra artist-in-residence Daniil Trifonov in music of Brahms, Boulez, and Dvořák.
Autumn 2027
Klaus Mäkelä will assume his new roles at Royal Concertgebouw and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.