Biography

Since June 2022, Juraj Valčuha has been music director of the Houston Symphony. He is also music director of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and first guest conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was chief conductor of the RAI National Symphony in Turin from 2009 to 2016.

Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, he studied composition and conducting in Saint Petersburg and Paris. His international career began in 2000 on the podium of the Orchestre National de France, followed by debuts in the United Kingdom with the Philharmonia Orchestra, in Germany with the Munich Philharmonic, and in the United States with the Pittsburgh Symphony. His Italian debut took place at Teatro Comunale in Bologna with a production of La bohème. He has since conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Filarmonica della Scala, Montréal Symphony, and NHK Symphony.

In the United States, Mr. Valčuha enjoys regular collaborations with the Minnesota Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Pittsburgh Symphony, and made his San Francisco Symphony debut in May 2013 as a Shenson Young Artist. He has toured internationally with the RAI National Symphony to the Musikverein in Vienna, Berlin Philharmonie, and to Cologne, Düsseldorf, Zurich, Munich, Enesco Festival, and Abu Dhabi. He has also toured with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin to Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn, marking the 100th anniversary of the Baltic nations.

His engagements in the 2022–23 season will take him to the Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He will conduct Verdi’s Don Carlo at Teatro San Carlo in Naples and La bohème and Tristan und Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera.

10/2022