Does a conductor have agency?

The Chicago Symphony’s choice of a Finn stickmaster with orchestras in three other countries is a glaring symptom of musical confusion on all sides. Which well-run orchestra would agree to share its leader four ways? And which conductor of sound mind would want to be in simultaneous charge of strong-minded groups of world-class musicians speaking four different languages? Quite apart from anything else, Klaus Mäkelä will be required from today to remember the names and faces of five hundred players.

It is a hapless situation. The only possible motivations are power, pride and pecuniary ambition, none of which yet appear to be driving characteristics of a bachelor Finn in his 20s. His Chicago pay will be around $1.5 million, Amsterdam well below that.

So how did this fistful of jobs come together? It’s a matter of agency. Mäkelä is managed by the British agent Jasper Parrott, who recently gave up executive control of his company but shows no sign yet of taking a back seat. Parrott, 79, has been Mäkelä’s personal manager since April 2016. In those eight years Parrott has apparently neglected to teach him how to say, No.

Major conductors have agency in their career decisions. Berlin’s Kirill Petrenko does not let his diary get overloaded by Michael Lewin in Vienna, nor does Gustavo Dudamel take excess baggage from his London manager Mark Newbanks. Esa-Pekka Salonen would have instructed Newbanks to disentangle him from the SanFran Symphony, not the other weay round. Simon Rattle acts independently of Askonas Holt.

Mäkelä is young, naive and trusting. He seems to think he can keep four orchestras happy over the next three years. He needs to grow up fast and seize agency, before it consumes him.

photo: Decca