Klaus Mäkelä, just 28, to become Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director in 2027

Klaus Mäkelä was hired Tuesday to succeed Riccardo Muti as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and will become the youngest head since its start in 1891.

A Finn who turned 28 in January, Mäkelä has had an astonishing rise in the music world, becoming principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2018-19, then chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic in 2020-21 and music director of the Orchestre de Paris in 2021-22. He is to start a five-year term as chief conductor the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands in 2027-28 after his contracts in Norway and France expire.

Mäkelä will become CSO music director designate immediately and start a five-year tenure in 2027-28, conducting a minimum 14 weeks per season. Mäkelä will be the youngest U.S. music director with a major orchestra since Gustavo Dudamel was 28 when he started with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009.

“It’s just something which I don’t think about,” Mäkelä said during an interview with The Associated Press. “I was just reminded when I started in Amsterdam that I’m actually not even young, (Willem) Mengelberg was 24 when he started.”