CSO’s Klaus Mäkelä Masterclass

Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä led a cello masterclass on Wednesday, February 18. Sponsored by the Negaunee Music Institute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association in partnership with Merit School of Music, Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative (CMPI), and Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras (CYSO), the event at Merit’s Anne and Howard Gottlieb Hall was a celebration of Chicago’s vibrant music education space and its intersection with the great cultural institutions of our city. 

The intimate hall was filled to maximum capacity with a multigenerational audience eager to learn from Maestro Mäkelä. Among the audience were several CYSO musicians, paper and pen in hand, searching for insights as Maestro Mäkelä gave one-on-one coaching to their peers. The three cellists who performed each represented one of the partner organizations: Analia Arias (Merit), Ezrael Lukman (CMPI), and Vivian Hirschl (CYSO). In working with each student, Maestro Mäkelä provided artistic feedback, technical direction, and anecdotes about his own relationship with repertoire from his casual, cross-legged repose at the edge of the stage.

Maestro Mäkelä encouraged the students to play with the music and find different ways to distinguish phrases. In an effort to help the students relax and avoid tensing up, he suggested stepping back from the minutiae of what the students are doing with their own instruments and listening to the greater whole. “It’s all about taking distance from what you yourself are doing,” he said. “You learn so much from listening.” He emphasized the importance of playing with other musicians in orchestras and chamber ensembles to develop this skill, and shared his own formative experiences performing in an ensemble.  

Throughout the masterclass, Maestro Mäkelä brought comfort to the full room and made everyone from the performers to the audience feel welcomed into an evening of discovery. We are deeply grateful to Maestro Mäkelä for spending his evening with our students and community, and for sharing his time, wisdom, and inspiring enthusiasm.

📸: Todd Rosenberg Photography