Ravinia 2026 Issue 3

Klaus Mäkelä backstage at Orchestra Hall after his second CSO engagement, in February 2023, conducting works by Sibelius, Jimmy López, and Mahler KLAUS MÄKELÄ’S PARENTS had one wish. “For me not to become a mu- sician,” he said. “And unfortunately,” he continued, “it didn’t become true.” But to be fair, the Finnish conduc- tor—now the Chicago Symphony Or- chestra’s Zell Music Director Designate, making his Ravinia debut on August and , years to the day since the orchestra rst gave a concert in the festival’s pavilion—didn’t stand much of a chance of ful lling that wish. As he shared with WFMT program host Lisa Flynn during the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association’s pro- gram A Conversation with Klaus Mäkelä on October , , at Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, Mäkelä grew up in a musical family. His mother played pia- no, his father played cello, and, at age , he followed suit. But it was when he began singing in the children’s choir at the Finnish Na- tional Opera, namely in Georges Bizet’s Carmen, that his eyes were opened to conducting. “I was completely mesmerized that the conductor was able to play the music, or play the orchestra like one would play an instrument,” he recalled. “I just really wanted to do it too. … I kept dreaming about it and trying to read scores.” It was his admission to the cello pro- gram at Finland’s Sibelius Academy that changed his fate. “ ere was a conducting class with a very famous professor, Jorma Panula, who of course everyone knew; he has been the great teacher of all the Euro- pean conductors for decades. And then I was invited into the class, which was a bit of a surprise. And here I am now.” Mäkelä’s road to the CSO was un- expectedly long. As Je Alexander, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Asso- ciation’s president, recalled during the conversation with Mäkelä and Flynn at Orchestra Hall, the search committee for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s next music director had its rst meeting on February , . “And three weeks later, the world shut down,” he said. Any orchestra would prefer to interact with their potential new music directors in person; to experience their rapport with the orchestra, observe their artistry, see them in a new space. While discussing via Zoom the potential candidates they did know, the search committee began researching less-famil- iar candidates online. And there, they found their future pick. “We came upon a video of Klaus conducting the Orchestre de Paris, the slow movement of Beethoven’s Sym- phony No. , and it was mesmerizing,” Alexander said. “Just the sound he was getting out of the orchestra, even [as heard] through our little speakers, and the phrasing, the tempo, the atmosphere that he created. It’s a three-minute clip. And that was the rst time we really became entranced with him.” Mäkelä, eventually, was similarly taken. “I remember very well how it was to come here for the rst time,” he said of his April debut with the CSO. “I love to listen to recordings, and the Chi- cago Symphony is one of those orches- tras that, when you see the name on a record cover, you already feel something before you even open the case. And, of course, I was thinking about how it would be to stand here, and hear the or- chestra live in this hall—in this incred- ible place where so many great concerts have taken place—and to work with all of you. I remember it was extremely exciting, and of course I was nervous as hell, but I enjoyed it tremendously.” Below: Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra cellist Vivian Hirschl looks on as Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä coaches her on a passage from Haydn’s Second Cello Concerto in a master class produced by the Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO and hosted at Chicago’s Merit School of Music in February 2026. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 11