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Klaus Mäkelä conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on tour at the 2025 Salzburg Festival
Marco Borrelli
Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä returns to Chicago in October 2025 for the first of four CSO residencies in the 2025/26 Season after leading acclaimed orchestral performances around the world, including concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Mäkelä was also one of the featured conductors in the historic Mahler Festival hosted in May 2025 at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed as the only North American ensemble.
On April 19, 2025 during its annual Easter Festival, the Berlin Philharmonic welcomed Klaus Mäkelä back to the podium for a program, which included Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony.
Klaus Mäkelä conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in R. Strauss' Alpine Symphony during the 2025 Easter Festival in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Monika Rittershaus
Mäkelä, who becomes Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra beginning in the 2027/28 season, led performances of Mahler’s First and Eighth symphonies during the 2025 Mahler Festival. For Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand,” Mäkelä led the combined forces of Dutch and French choirs with the orchestra. The Dutch newspaper Trouw noted in its five-star review that it was “beautifully supported by the sounds of the great organ and by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, which had this symphony on the lectern for the 32nd time after its premiere under Willem Mengelberg in 1912.”
Mäkelä also attended Chicago Symphony Orchstrestra concerts at the Mahler Festival, including the May 15 performance of the Sixth Symphony and the May 16 performance of his Seventh Symphony, both conducted by Jaap van Zweden.
Mäkelä conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Mahler's Eighth Symphony.
Eduardus Lee
As part of the CSO’s patron tour activities in Amsterdam, Mäkelä attended a Mahler Festival pre-concert event and greeted members of Women’s Board of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.
Todd Rosenberg Photography
In June 2025, Mäkelä joined the Orchestre de Paris for an Asia Tour featuring sold out concerts in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. The tour opened in Tokyo’s celebrated Suntory Hall with a program featuring music of Ravel and Mussorgsky.
Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris take a bow at Suntory Hall, where they performed works by Ravel and Mussorgsky.
Mathias Benguigui
Mäkelä and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) made a summer 2025 Festivals tour, including stops in Cologne and Berlin, at the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms in London, Berlin, and capped the tour at Vienna’s Konzerthaus.
Mäkelä and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in a concert at the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall.
Chris Christodoulou
In September 2025, the Dutch-language Donald Duck magazine offered classical music fans a chance to go on tour with the Duckburg “Kwekgebouw Orchestra” and its conductor “Klaus Kwäkkelä,” with Donald Duck providing special assistance as an usher during the tour. Mäkelä gave his consent for the ’verducking’ of his name and person for the special edition commissioned by the Concertgebouw for this whimsical musical comic book adventure.
Special thanks to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for digital access to this special edition.
