Juraj Valčuha
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, Juraj Valčuha has been music director of the Houston Symphony. He was music director of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and first guest conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was also 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 2004 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. He has since conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Filarmonica della Scala, NHK Symphony and Montréal Symphony
His engagements in 2024-2025 took him to the Houston, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Chicago, the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo.
On the European stage he performs Tristan & Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Salomé at the Semperoper in Dresden, The Cunning little Vixen at the Paris Opéra Bastille. He leads concerts with the RAI Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, the NDR Hamburg, SWR Stuttgart and the London Philharmonic and the Munich Philharmonc.