Orchestre de Paris

At 27, the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä already has an impressive resume: chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, music director of the Orchestre de Paris, and artistic partner of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, a role that will turn into chief conductor when his other music directorships expire in 2027.

For his UMS debut, he conducts the orchestra in Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Stravinsky’s complete Firebird, with 2022 Van Cliburn winner Yunchan Lim performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The 18-year-old Lim’s ascent to international stardom has been meteoric; he is the youngest person to win gold at the Van Cliburn Competition and also won both the Audience Award and the award for Best Performance of a New Work.