The Cleveland Orchestra has announced the appointment of SASHA MÄKILÄ to a two-year term as assistant conductor, effective in September 2010. As holder of the Sidney and Doris Dworkin Chair he will conduct education and family concerts, plus additional concerts as needed, and serve as cover conductor for the orchestra’s Severance Hall and Blossom Festival subscription concerts. He succeeds TITO MUÑOZ, who completes his third and final year as assistant conductor/League of American Orchestras Conducting Fellow at the end of this season. Mäkilä is now in his final season as an assistant conductor to Kurt Masur at the Orchestre National de France. In 2009 he was a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen Music Festival and School. Third-prize winner of the Sixth Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition (Chattanooga, Tenn.), he has appeared as a guest conductor in his native Finland as well as in Russia, Denmark, the U.K., and South Africa. This spring he makes his debuts with the Joensuu and Turku Philharmonic orchestras in Finland, and with South Africa’s Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra. Mäkilä holds a bachelor’s degree in cello performance from the Helsinki Conservatory and a master’s in conducting from the Sibelius Academy, both in Finland.
Posted April 6, 2010
