A Young Master At The Podium

Finnish conductor, cellist and Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Makela takes charge of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to lead them through Sibelius' evocative Seventh Symphony and Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony, in a dazzling display at the Symphony Center. One of the shining lights of the new faces of classical music, Makela became the Swedish Radio Orchestra's youngest ever conductor in 2017 and has since led some of the world's greatest orchestras. Be sure to catch this young talent at work!

Jean Sibelius' masterful Seventh Symphony happens in a single-movement, compressing the emotional arc of a traditional symphony into a seamlessly connected, organic whole. Premiered in 1924, its monumental scale and iconic trombone theme mark the triumphant peak of the composer's late style. Shostakovich’s Fourth, meanwhile, is a massive, highly dissonant work whose violence and structural ambition reflected the political fears of 1930s Soviet Russia.