Klaus Mäkelä, just 28 to become next music director of Chicago Symphony Orchestra

After Riccardo Muti steps down as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, Klaus Mäkelä will take over as the orchestra's youngest music director since its founding in 1891. 

Mäkelä, a Finn who turned 28 in January, has had an incredible career in the music industry, rising to the position of head conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic in 2020–21, main guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2018–19, and music director of the Orchestre de Paris in 2021–22. Following the expiration of his contracts in Norway and France, he will begin a five-year tenure as chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands in 2027–2028. 

Mäkelä will become CSO music director designate immediately and start a five-year tenure in 2027-28, conducting a minimum 14 weeks per season. Mäkelä will be the youngest U.S. music director with a major orchestra since Gustavo Dudamel was 28 when he started with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009. 

“It’s just something which I don’t think about,” Mäkelä said during an interview with a news channel. “I was just reminded when I started in Amsterdam that I’m actually not even young, (Willem) Mengelberg was 24 when he started.” 

Muti was music director for 13 seasons before stepping down last summer ahead of his 82nd birthday. Mäkelä will be 31 years, seven months, 16 days when he starts on Sept. 1, 2027. The previous youngest head of the orchestra was Frederick Stock at 32 years, 5 months, 1 day when he was hired on April 11, 1905, to succeed founding music director Theodore Thomas. 

Mäkelä will take over an orchestra far older than he is. Among 93 members, Muti made 32 appointments and Daniel Barenboim 28, with most of the remainder by Georg Solti. Principal trombone Jay Friedman and harpist Lynne Turner were hired by Fritz Reiner, music director from 1953-62. 

“What I like about Chicago Symphony is there is quite a big part of it which still sounds like it sounded with Reiner,” Mäkelä said. 

He first led the CSO in April 2022 in a program that included Stravinsky's “The Firebird.” 

“When you conduct an orchestra for the first time, it’s somehow a chemistry thing,” Mäkelä said. “I felt that, OK, this orchestra they were willing to go to places with me which I had not done with other orchestras.” 

CSO president Jeff Alexander attended the first rehearsal.