Klaus Mäkelä

Klaus Mäkelä is Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. With Orchestre de Paris he assumed the role of Artistic Advisor in 2020/21 and will become the orchestra’s next Music Director in September 2022. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony and Artistic Director of the Turku Music Festival. An exclusive Decca Classics Artist, Klaus Mäkelä has recorded the complete Sibelius Symphony cycle with the Oslo Philharmonic as his first project for the label, to be released in Spring 2022.

Klaus Mäkelä launches the Oslo Philharmonic 2021/22 season this August with a special concert featuring Bartok Divertimento, Liszt Piano Concerto No.1 with soloist Yuja Wang, two new works by Norwegian composer Mette Henriette and Sibelius Lemminkäinen. A similarly wide range of repertoire is presented throughout his second season in Oslo, including major choral works by Bach, Mozart and William Walton, Mahler Symphony No. 3 and Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 10 and 14 with soloists Mika Kares and Asmik Grigorian. Recent and new works include compositions by Sally Beamish, Unsuk Chin, Jimmy Lopez, Andrew Norman and Kaija Saariaho. In Spring 2022 Klaus Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic perform the complete Sibelius Symphony cycle at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and tour to France and the UK.

With Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä tours to the summer festivals of Granada and Aix en Provence. For his first concert in the 2021/ 22 season he conducts a new work by Unsuk Chin entitled Spira, Richard Strauss’ Four Songs Op 27 with soloist Lise Davidsen and Mahler Symphony No. 1. His second season as Music Director designate also features the music of Messiaen, Ligeti and Dutilleux feature alongside Biber, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky.

In the 2021/22 season Klaus Mäkelä appears as a Portrait Artist at the Wiener Konzerthaus conducting the Wiener Symphoniker and Oslo Philharmonic and playing cello in chamber music. He also guest conducts the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic and Münchner Philharmoniker.

In the 2020/21 season Klaus Makela appeared with the Concertgebouworkest, Münchner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Tapiola Sinfonietta. As Artist in Residence at Spain’s Granada Festival he conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and Orchestre de Paris. At the Verbier Festival he conducts and performs cello in a chamber music programme. Mäkelä will also return to the Turku Festival to conduct the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra in a concert celebrating the music of Pēteris Vasks.

Mäkelä studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula and cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen and Hannu Kiiski. As a soloist, he has performed with several Finnish orchestras and as a chamber musician with members of the Oslo Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as at many Finnish festivals. He plays a Giovanni Grancino cello from 1698, kindly made available to him by the OP Art Foundation.