ÍøÆغÚÁÏ

Although it does not have the long history of other European orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris has attracted top talent and played a major role in the cultural life of the French capital since its founding in 1967. The orchestra also has an associated choir, the Chœur de l'Orchestre de Paris, that was established in 1976 and has been highly regarded. The Orchestre de Paris was founded after the demise of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, which dated back to 1828 but had encountered financial difficulties. One of that group's former conductors, Charles Munch, held the auditions for the new orchestra and employed 50 members of the older group; the majority of its members, however, were new, and the orchestra owed its high quality from the start to the stature of Munch, who died in 1968 and was succeeded, as musical advisor rather than as permanent music director, by Herbert von Karajan. Concerts during the orchestra's first several years of existence featured top guest soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich. The following music directors were of uniformly prestigious stature, including Georg Solti (1972-1975), Daniel Barenboim (1975-1989), Semyon Bychkov (1989-1998), Christoph von Dohnányi (1998-2000, another artistic advisor), Christoph Eschenbach (2000-2010), Paavo Järvi (2010-2016), and Daniel Harding (2016-2019). Principal guest conductor since 2016 has been Thomas Hengelbrock. The orchestra's concert life has been centered in Paris, but its headquarters have moved several times over its comparatively short existence. The orchestra's concerts took place for many years at the venerable Salle Pleyel hall, which was sold in 1998 and finally mothballed in 2002. For several years the orchestra moved among the Théâtre du Chatelet, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and, briefly, the renovated Salle Pleyel. In 2015 the orchestra moved into the new Philharmonie de Paris and has become its resident ensemble. The Orchestre de Paris has had a long recording career, including a 1982 recording of Ravel's Boléro that made the pop charts in the Netherlands. The group has recorded mostly for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Erato, Warner Classics, and Harmonia Mundi, for which it participated in a recording of Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat in 2018. ~ James Manheim

Conductor Klaus Mäkelä emerged rapidly in the late 2010s and early 2020s to become one of the most prominent figures on the musical scene in Scandinavia and beyond. In 2024, at the age of just 28, he was named future chief conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Mäkelä was born in Helsinki on January 17, 1996. His family was musical: his father, Sami Mäkelä, was a violinist, and his mother, Taru Myöhänen-Mäkela, was a pianist. At 12, as a singer in the chorus of the Finnish National Opera, Klaus became interested in conducting. He studied both conducting and cello at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. His conducting teacher there was Jorma Panula, and he took cello courses with Hannu Kiiski, Timo Hanhinen, and Marko Ylönen. For a time, as Mäkelä made concerto appearances with top regional orchestras around Finland, such as the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, and the Jyväskylä Sinfonia, it seemed as though he might choose a career path as a cellist. He performed on cello in chamber groups and appeared at several leading Finnish music festivals.

He then made a guest-conducting appearance with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in September of 2017. After that single appearance, Mäkelä was hired as the orchestra's principal guest conductor, beginning with the 2018-2019 season. He was the youngest individual ever to hold a post with a conductor title in that organization. The pattern repeated itself when Mäkelä guest conducted the Oslo Philharmonic, and he was appointed chief conductor for a term beginning in 2020. His contract was extended by four years before he had even assumed his post. His meteoric rise reached another stage after he made a guest appearance with the Orchestre de Paris in June of 2019; a year later, the orchestra named him music director, beginning in 2022. Mäkelä also became the artistic director of Finland's Turku Music Festival in 2018. He has served as an Artist in Association with the Tapiola Sinfonietta.

In addition to these regular posts, Mäkelä has made guest appearances with a variety of world-class ensembles. In 2022, the year he released his debut album (a complete set of the Sibelius symphonies with the Oslo Philharmonic), he was named artistic partner of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, with a five-year term as chief conductor set to begin in 2027. His profile was raised still higher by a romantic relationship with star pianist Yuja Wang, but the couple split up in early 2024. In 2023 and 2024, Mäkelä issued two albums of music by Stravinsky with the Orchestre de Paris on the Decca label. In 2024, after first guest-conducting the group two years earlier, he became the music director-designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Riccardo Muti. His initial five-year contract was set to begin in 2027. ~ James Manheim