The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which has been led for many years by conducting titans together with Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim and Riccardo Muti, introduced Tuesday that its subsequent music director could be Klaus Mäkelä, a 28-year-old Finnish conductor whose charisma and readability have fueled his speedy rise in classical music.
When he begins a five-year contract in 2027 at 31, Mäkelä would be the youngest maestro within the ensemble’s 133-year historical past, and one of many youngest ever to steer a high orchestra in the USA.
Mäkelä, who will turn out to be music director designate instantly, stated in an interview that he didn’t assume his age was related, noting that he had been conducting for greater than half his life, starting when he was 12.
“I don’t give it some thought,” he stated. “Music doesn’t actually have any age.”
Mäkelä, who will even take over as chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in 2027, stated he was becoming a member of the Chicago Symphony as a result of it has “that depth — that very same sound from the previous.”
“You felt as if something you’ll ask, they might really enhance and do extra,” he stated, recalling his current visitor appearances there. “For a conductor, that could be a very, very particular feeling since you see that there actually aren’t any limits to what you may obtain.”
Mäkelä can be in Chicago this week conducting the orchestra. He was set to seem with the star pianist Yuja Wang, with whom he was in a relationship till just lately. The 2 have been a classical music energy couple who generally carried out collectively. Wang withdrew from the live shows final week with out giving a motive. She can be changed by the cellist Sol Gabetta.
Jeff Alexander, the Chicago Symphony’s president, stated in an interview that Mäkelä’s reference to the musicians was palpable from their first couple of minutes rehearsing collectively in 2022, making ready a program of Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Hillborg.
The orchestra’s leaders quickly started monitoring Mäkelä, secretly attending his performances in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and Oslo. They formally supplied him the job in February 2023 when he returned for a program of Mahler, Sibelius and López Bellido.
“Each expertise,” Alexander stated, “began to reconfirm our preliminary feeling that this actually may very well be a particular new relationship.”
Mäkelä, one of many trade’s most in-demand conductors, already leads the Oslo Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. He stated he would step down from these ensembles when his contracts expire in 2027 in order that he might give attention to the orchestras in Chicago and Amsterdam.
Mäkelä’s appointment will convey a generational shift to Chicago: He succeeds Muti, 82, the veteran maestro who led the Chicago Symphony from 2010 to 2023 earlier than turning into music director emeritus for all times.
The Chicago Symphony, with an endowment of $385 million, is without doubt one of the wealthiest and most celebrated in the USA. However it faces challenges, together with lingering monetary ache from the pandemic, rising prices and a protracted, gradual decline in subscriptions, which had as soon as offered a profitable income. Attendance at live shows remains to be beneath prepandemic ranges — about 79 p.c this season in contrast with 83 p.c — although it has been steadily rising.
The orchestra hopes that Mäkelä will help appeal to new audiences to classical music, together with youthful concertgoers.
“There may be nothing incorrect with outdated individuals,” Mäkelä stated. “However after all, ideally, we might have a really wide-ranging numerous viewers.”
Throughout his tenure, Mäkelä stated he hoped to deal with commonplace repertoire like Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony and Bach’s St. Matthew Ardour, in addition to much less generally carried out works like Monteverdi’s “Vespro della Beata Vergine” and William Walton’s choral work “Belshazzar’s Feast.”
He additionally stated he would make commissioning new items a precedence, naming Unsuk Chin, Thomas Larcher, Andrew Norman and Anna Thorvaldsdottir as a few of his favourite modern composers.
“I really feel that we will have a totally new chapter for the orchestra by way of repertoire, by way of creating the identical superb sound,” he stated, “however having it as versatile as doable.”
The Chicago Symphony can also be working to convey extra ladies and other people of coloration into the ensemble. The orchestra has 59 males and 34 ladies, and just a few Black and Latino members.
As a result of the pandemic delayed auditions, the orchestra has an unusually excessive variety of vacancies, 15, which Mäkelä stated was an “alternative for change.” He’ll begin weighing in on auditions instantly, the orchestra stated.
Mäkelä, who educated on the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, stated a few of his fashions have been Esa-Pekka Salonen, a fellow Finn who just lately introduced he was stepping down from the San Francisco Symphony, pointing to his experiments with music and expertise. And he expressed admiration for Kirill Petrenko, the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, saying he had proven braveness in programming.
This week’s live shows can be Mäkelä’s third go to to Chicago. He stated he favored the town’s artwork, structure and meals and didn’t concern its formidable winter season.
“I’m not afraid of the climate, being Finnish,” he stated. “It appears fairly cozy.”
