BBC - Philharmonic - 24 October 2008

Slovakian conductor Juraj Valcuha studied composition, conducting and cymbalon at the Bratislava Conservatory. From the age of nineteen he spent two years in St. Petersburg and studied conducting with Ilya Musin. In 1998 he moved to Paris where he studied conducting at the Conservatoire National Supérieur with Janos Fürst and attended Masterclasses of Jorma Panula.

Juraj Valcuha was Assistant Music Director of the Orchestre et Opéra National de Montpellier from 2003 to 2005. Contemporaneously he made his debut with the Orchestre National de France (with whom he recorded the Alaleona´s opera Mirra) and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France.

In the season 2005/2006 he conducted the Orchestre National de France, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and he led in Paris a widely acclaimed Bohème as well as the double-bill Debussy La Chute de la Maison Usher and Chapochnikov Le Jardin Empoisonné with the Orchestre National de France. He had his German debut with the Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonie in Ludwigshafen.

In the 2006/2007 season he conducted La Boheme at the Teatro Comunale Bologna and Le nozze di Figaro at the Opéra de Nancy. With the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo he conducted the New Year concert and at the Festival Le Printemps des Arts in Monaco. Then he conducted the double-bill Bartok Bluebeard/Poulenc La Voix Humaine at the Opéra de Lyon, concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, the Filarmonica Toscanini in Parma.

Having opened the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra´s current season, 2007/2008 also sees Juraj Valcuha conduct the RAI Orchestra in Turin, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Oslo Philharmonic, the DSO (Deutsche Symphonie Orchester) in Berlin, the Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo in Napoli and the Rotterdam Philharmonic once again. He will conduct Madama Butterfly in Paris and a Midsummer Night´s Dream in Nancy and will return to the Teatro Comunale Bologna for concerts. He will conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra in the opening concert of the 2008 Geneva Festival.

In 2008/2009 he will make his debut with the Gewandhaus Leipzig, with the Swedish Radio Orchestra, with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich with Madama Butterfly and will appear again with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France in Paris.

Biography taken from http://www.hc.sk

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Juraj Valcuha, conductor