Klaus Mäkelä: Wunderkind Conductor Career Timeline (so far)

By Keegan Morris |

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Klaus Mäkelä, dressed in a wool suit and brown turtleneck, gives a half smile while holding a conductor's baton

Klaus Mäkelä (Photo: Marco Borggreve, courtesy Oslo Philharmonic)

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 4, 2024

Mäkelä makes first concert appearances with CSO following his appointment as music director designate.

Conductor and CSO musicians receive the applause of the audience at Chicago's Symphony Center

Klaus Mäkelä and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra receive an ovation at Symphony Center (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)

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.