Page 159 - GTMF 2024 Season Program

August 9 & 10
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Juraj Valčuha Photo: Luciano Romano
Conductor

Conductor Juraj Valčuha is recognized for the
effortless expressiveness and the depth of his
musicianship. With a sharp baton technique and a
natural stage presence, it is the impressive ease
of his interpretations that translate even the most
complex scores into immersive experiences.
Since June 2022, Valčuha has served as Music
Director of the Houston Symphony. He was Music
Director of the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples from
2016 to 2022 and First Guest Conductor of the
Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was Chief Conductor
of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai from
2009 to 2016.
2005-06 marked the start of his international
career on the podium of the Orchestre National
de France followed by remarkable debuts in the
UK with the Philharmonia London, in Germany
with the Munich Philharmonic, in the US with the
Pittsburgh Symphony.
He has since led the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra,
Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin
Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Amsterdam His engagements in 2023 and 2024 take him to
Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Houston, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Chicago
Vienna Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre and Minnesota Orchestras as well as to the Yomiuri
de Paris, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Orchestra Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo. On the European stage,
dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome and he performs La fanciulla del West and Tristan und
Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Montréal Symphony, Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera and at the
and SWR Stuttgart, NDR Hamburg and Hessische Deutsche Oper Berlin, Jenůfa at the Opera di Roma
Rundfunk Frankfurt. In the US, he enjoys regular and Salomê at the Semperoper in Dresden. He leads
collaborations with the Houston Symphony, Minnesota concerts with the RAI Orchestra, the Orchestra
Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestre
Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony.
National de France, the Munich Philharmonic.
Juraj Valčuha champions the compositions of Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, he studied composition
living composers. With the Pittsburgh Symphony, and conducting in his birthplace, then in
he premiered Christopher Rouse’s Supplica. With St. Petersburg (with Ilya Musin), as well as in Paris.
the BBC Symphony in Manchester, he led the first
performance of Steven Mackey’s violin concerto with www.jurajvalcuha.com
Leila Josefowitz. With the Houston Symphony, he
conducted the World Premiere of Nico Muhly Bright
Idea and the US Premiere of Julia Wolfe’s “Pretty.”
Some other composers he is interested in are Bryce
Dessner, Steven Stucky, Andrew Norman, James
MacMillan, Luca Francesconi, Anna Thorvaldsdottir,
Anna Clyne, Jessie Montgomery and Carlos Simon,
among others.

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