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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced that Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 is to be its next music director. The 28-year-old Finnish conductor will begin as the orchestra\u2019s music director designate with immediate effect before beginning a five-year contract as music director in September 2027. His new position will see him commit to at least 14 weeks per year with the 133-year-old ensemble, one of the US\u2019s famed \u2018Big Five\u2019 orchestras, in the same year that he also takes up the position of chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.<\/p>
Taking on the Chicago baton is just the latest step up in what has been an extraordinarily rapid rise for M\u00e4kel\u00e4, who began his career with studies under the famous conducting teacher Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In December 2017, he was named, at just 21, the principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and within less than 12 months had added the post of the artistic director of the Turku Music Festival to his CV and \u2013 even more impressively \u2013 was named as the next chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, beginning in 2020.<\/p>
With the Oslo Philharmonic, M\u00e4kel\u00e4 has impressed both on stage and in the studio, not least with the Decca recording of Sibelius\u2019s complete symphonies that was nominated for the Orchestral Award at the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Awards. In 2021, he also began as music director of the Orchestre de Paris, with whom he has recorded two albums of Stravinsky ballets, again for Decca. His tenure in Paris will coincide with the beginning of his contract in Chicago.<\/p>
As with his other appointments, M\u00e4kel\u00e4 is not taking a step into the unknown with his move to Chicago, as he has previously guest conducted the orchestra twice. \u2018I look forward to getting to know the musicians more over the coming years,\u2019 he says, describing the CSO as \u2018an orchestra that combines such brilliance, power and passion.\u2019<\/p>
His predecessors in the \u2018Windy City\u2019 are nothing if not prestigious. Founded in 1891, the CSO can name legends such as Rafael Kubel\u00edk, Fritz Reiner and Daniel Barenboim among the ten conductors to have held the post before M\u00e4kel\u00e4. Perhaps most renowned, however, was Georg Solti, under whose tenure from 1969-91 the CSO enjoyed a golden era, crowned with Grammy Awards galore. Riccardo Muti, M\u00e4kel\u00e4\u2019s immediate predecessor, is now the CSO\u2019s music director emeritus for life.<\/p>
\u2018I am delighted with this outcome,\u2019 says Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association president Jeff Alexander about their new signing. \u2018As we got to know [M\u00e4kel\u00e4] off the podium and witnessed \u2013 in addition to his extraordinary musical talent \u2013 his passion for the artform, keen interest in music education and the legacy of the CSO, and innate ability to connect warmly and sincerely with our trustees, volunteers, concert attendees, donors, and administrative staff, it quickly became clear that he was the ideal choice to lead the orchestra into the future.\u2019<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
By Published: Tuesday, 02 April 2024 at 17:07 PM The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced that Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 is to be its next music director. The 28-year-old Finnish conductor will begin as the orchestra\u2019s music director designate with immediate effect before beginning a five-year contract as music director in September 2027. His new position will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41632,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/klaus-makela-named-chicago-symphony-orchestra-music-director.png",1928,1290,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/klaus-makela-named-chicago-symphony-orchestra-music-director-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/klaus-makela-named-chicago-symphony-orchestra-music-director-300x201.png",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/klaus-makela-named-chicago-symphony-orchestra-music-director-768x514.png",768,514,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/klaus-makela-named-chicago-symphony-orchestra-music-director-1024x685.png",800,535,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/klaus-makela-named-chicago-symphony-orchestra-music-director-1536x1028.png",1536,1028,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/klaus-makela-named-chicago-symphony-orchestra-music-director.png",1928,1290,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Tuesday, 02 April 2024 at 17:07 PM The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced that Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 is to be its next music director. The 28-year-old Finnish conductor will begin as the orchestra\u2019s music director designate with immediate effect before beginning a five-year contract as music director in September 2027. His new position will…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/41631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}