Stravinsky Oedipus Rex

Conductor Juraj Valčuha is recognized for his effortless expressiveness and depth of musicianship. With sharp baton technique and natural stage presence, the impressive ease of his interpretations translate even the most complex scores into immersive experiences. His profound understanding of composer and score, taste, and naturally elegant style make him one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation.

Since 2016 Valčuha has been Music Director of the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples and First Guest Conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI from 2009 to 2016.

The 2005–06 season marked the start of his international career with exciting concerts on the podium of the Orchestre National de France followed by remarkable debuts in the U.K. with the Philharmonia London, 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 sensational production of La Bohème.

He has since led the Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, hr Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia London, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Montréal Symphony, and NHK and Yomiuri orchestras in Tokyo. His active career in the U.S. has taken him to the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Utah. He enjoys regular collaborations with orchestras in Houston, Minnesota, New York, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.

International touring with the Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI took them to the Musikverein in Vienna and the Philharmonie in Berlin, as well as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Zurich, Basel, and Munich, and to the Enesco Festival in Bucharest, and to Abu Dhabi Classics. He has also toured with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin to Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn to mark the 100th anniversary of the Baltic nations.

Valčuha champions the compositions of living composers and aims to program contemporary pieces in most of his concerts. He has conducted world premieres including Christopher Rouses´s Supplica with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Steven Mackey’s violin concerto with Leila Josefowicz and the BBC Symphony in Manchester, and Nico Muhly´s Bright Idea with the Houston Symphony. In 2005 he conducted, in the presence of the composer, Steve Reich´s Four Sections at the Melos-Ethos Festival in Bratislava. Other composers he has supported and continues to follow with interest are Bryce Dessner, Andrew Norman, Luca Francesconi, James MacMillan, and Steven Stucky, among others.

On the opera stage, he has conducted Madama Butterfly, Elisir d‘amore, and Marriage of Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera Munich; Elektra and Turandot at the Deutsche Oper Berlin; Faust and The Love for three oranges in Florence; Jenufa, Peter Grimes, Salome, Tristan und Isolde, and Ariadne auf Naxos in Bologna; Peter Grimes in Venice; and Elektra, Carmen, Bluebeard’s Castle, Die Walküre, The Girl of the Golden West, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Katja Kabanova, and Pique Dame in Napoli.

Juraj Valčuha was awarded the Premio Abbiati 2018 from Italian Music critics in the category Best Conductor.

His engagements in the 2022–23 season will  take him to the Houston, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco Orchestras, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell´Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Orchestre National de France.  He will conduct Verdi´s Don Carlo at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and La Boheme and Tristan & Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera Munich.

Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, he studied composition and conducting in his birth place, then at the Conservatory in St Petersburg (with Ilya Musin), and, finally, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de la Musique in Paris.

jurajvalcuha.com

Critics have praised clarinetist Mark Nuccio for both his solo and chamber appearances, describing him as “the evening’s highlight”, full of “mystery and insight” and “shaping his phrases beautifully with a rich, expressive tone.” (New York Times)

Mr. Nuccio is currently the Principal Clarinetist of the Houston Symphony since 2016. Prior to that, he was a member of the New York Philharmonic having joined in 1999 as Associate Principal and Solo E-flat Clarinetist. During Nuccio’s 17 years in the NYP, he served as Acting Principal Clarinet for four years from 2009-2013. Prior to his service with the Philharmonic, he has held positions with orchestras in Pittsburgh, Denver, Savannah, and Florida working with distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Alan Gilbert, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, André Previn, Christoph von Dohnányi, Valero Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Andres Orozco Estrada, and Juraj Valcuha. Additionally, Mr. Nuccio has toured extensively with the Houston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and in numerous countries, recorded with all three orchestras, and performed regularly with the Philharmonic on the award-winning series, Live from Lincoln Center, broadcast on PBS. Recent highlights include the Philharmonic’s historic and newsworthy visits to North Korea and Vietnam.

An active solo and chamber musician, Mr. Nuccio has been featured with various orchestras in the United States and made multiple appearances as a featured performer at the International Clarinet Association conventions. He made his subscription solo debut with the Houston Symphony in 2018 with several other appearances since then, with the subscription solo debut with the New York Philharmonic on Feb. 10, 2010 and returned to perform the Copland Concerto with the NY Philharmonic under the baton of Alan Gilbert on May 31 and June 1 of 2013. Other highlights include a New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2001, his Japanese recital debut in 2002. He continues to regularly perform recitals in Asia and Europe as well as across the United States and in New York, he can often be heard at Merkin Concert Hall, 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Nuccio also participates in the chamber music series at the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, performs/teaches at Festival Napa Valley, and teaches at ARIA Music Festival, among others.

As a studio musician, Mr. Nuccio is featured on numerous movie soundtracks, including Failure To Launch, The Last Holiday, The Rookie, The Score, Intolerable Cruelty, Alamo, Pooh’s Heffalump, Hitch, The Manchurian Candidate, as well as various television commercials, Super Bowl music and the Master’s Golf Tournament. Additionally he has performed on the Late Show with David Letterman and on the 2003 Grammy Awards. His own debut album featuring the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms, Opening Night, was released in November 2006.

A Colorado native, Mr. Nuccio was recently awarded the “Distinguished Alumni Award” from his alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado. He also holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University where he studied with renowned pedagogue Robert Marcellus. Beyond his active performing schedule, Mr. Nuccio is committed to training the next generation of musicians and currently serves as music faculty for Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music in Evanston, IL. He also teaches masterclasses in the U.S. and abroad. Mark Nuccio is a D’Addario Advising Artist & Clinician and a performing artist/clinician for Buffet Music Group.

Sean Panikkar continues “to position himself as one of the stars of his generation…” [Opera News]. The American tenor of Sri Lankan heritage achieved a break-out success in his 2018 Salzburger Festspiele debut as Dionysus in Henze’s The Bassarids. He was also critically acclaimed that year in his Los Angeles Opera debut as Gandhi in the company’s production of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha.

Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung has gained a reputation as a critically acclaimed artist who appears regularly with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, and the Concertgebouworkest. She has also performed at the prestigious festivals of Ravinia, Tanglewood, Saito Kinen, Edinburgh, and Lucerne. In Australia, she has appeared multiple times with Sydney Symphony.

American bass-baritone David Pittsinger is renowned as a stage performer of the greatest distinction for his dramatic portrayals in the world’s major opera houses. Of his Helen Hayes Award-nominated performance as Emile de Becque in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific at the Kennedy Center, the Washington Times wrote: “His brilliant, knife-clean bass-baritone voice, impeccable enunciation—even with a French accent—and his authoritative, passionate delivery provide the perfect mix of romance, passion, and traditional masculine bravado. And his vocal delivery of ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ as well as the sorrowing ‘This Nearly Was Mine’ registers extraordinarily high on the three-hanky scale. His Emile is perhaps the definitive interpretation of this role in our time.”

Dashon Burton has established a vibrant career appearing regularly throughout the United States and Europe. Highlights of his 2022-23 Season include returns to the Cleveland Orchestra for Schubert’s Mass No. 6 with Franz Welser-Möst in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall, to the Houston Symphony for Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with Juraj Valčuha, and to the New York Philharmonic for Michael Tilson Thomas’s Rilke Songs led by the composer. Debut appearances this season include Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Milwaukee Symphony led by Ken-David Masur, the world premiere of Chris Cerrone’s The Year of Silence with the Louisville Orchestra led by Teddy Abrams, and the Dvořák Requiem with the Richmond Symphony. Dashon continues his relationship with San Francisco Performances as an artist-in-residence with appearances at venues and educational institutions throughout the Bay Area.

A multiple award-winning singer, Dashon won his second Grammy Award in 2021 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album with his performance featured in Dame Ethyl Smyth’s masterwork The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra (Chandos). As an original member of the groundbreaking vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, he won his first Grammy Award for the group’s inaugural recording of new commissions.

His other recordings include Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome (Acis); the Grammy-nominated recording of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road (Naxos); Holocaust, 1944 by Lori Laitman (Acis); and Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. His album of spirituals garnered high praise and was singled out by The New York Times as “profoundly moving…a beautiful and lovable disc.”

Dashon received a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and Conservatory, and a master’s degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He is an assistant professor of voice at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. 

American tenor Matthew White, whom the New York Classical Review described as a “distinctive tenor [with a] dark and powerful lyric sound” is, in the 2022-23 Season performing Alfredo in La traviata with Houston Grand Opera, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Opéra de Montréal, Duca in Rigoletto with Utah Opera, and for his much-anticipated European debut, Don José in Carmen with Oper im Steinbruch in Austria. On the concert stage, he sings the Shepherd in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with the Houston Symphony and Handel’s Messiah with Nashville Symphony and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. In the 2021-22 Season, he performed Don José with Santa Fe Opera, Rodolfo in La bohème with Detroit Opera and Spoleto Festival USA, Don José with Arizona Opera, Lancelot in Chausson’s Le roi Arthus with Bard SummerScape, and the title role in Faust et Hélène with the Houston Symphony.

The Houston Symphony Chorus is one of Houston’s oldest and most distinguished musical organizations.

Over the years, the Chorus has sung with dozens of the world’s most notable conductors, including Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Steven Reineke, Michael Krajewski, Robert Shaw, André Previn, Leopold Stokowski, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir John Barbirolli, Ferenc Fricsay, Lawrence Foster, and Hans Graf, to name only a very few.

In addition to performances in Jones Hall, the Symphony’s home venue, the Chorus has also delighted audiences in various concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico.

Recent reactions to its performances include:

Classical/Chorus: “…beautifully balanced, modulated sound that seamlessly blended with the orchestra.”
—Review of A German Requiem, Houston Chronicle, May 8, 2018

Classical/Chorus: “… the chorus was magnificent.”
—Review of Stabat Mater, Houston Chronicle, September 27, 2018

The Chorus consists entirely of volunteer singers who have considerable musical skill, vocal talent, and choral experience. They audition for placement each year.  The Chorus performance schedule is possibly the busiest in the country, consisting of up to fourteen different sets of repertoire for a total of 45 concerts.
The Chorus has enjoyed the leadership of seven directors: Alfred Urbach (1946–1986), A. Clyde Roller (1967–1968), Wayne Bedford (1968–1969), Don Strong (1969–1977), Virginia Babikian (1977–1986), Charles Hausmann (1986–2014), and Dr. Betsy Cook Weber (2014–2022).  Because of Dr. Hausmann’s extraordinarily long service, he was named Director Emeritus upon his retirement.

Over the years, the Chorus has sung with dozens of the world’s most notable conductors, including Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Steven Reineke, Michael Krajewski, Robert Shaw, André Previn, Leopold Stokowski, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir John Barbirolli, Ferenc Fricsay, Lawrence Foster, and Hans Graf, to name only a very few.

In addition to performances in Jones Hall, the Symphony’s home venue, the Chorus has also delighted audiences in various concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico.

Recent reactions to its performances include:

Classical/Chorus: “…beautifully balanced, modulated sound that seamlessly blended with the orchestra.”
—Review of A German Requiem, Houston Chronicle, May 8, 2018

Classical/Chorus: “… the chorus was magnificent.”
—Review of Stabat Mater, Houston Chronicle, September 27, 2018

The Chorus consists entirely of volunteer singers who have considerable musical skill, vocal talent, and choral experience. They audition for placement each year.  The Chorus performance schedule is possibly the busiest in the country, consisting of up to fourteen different sets of repertoire for a total of 45 concerts.

Adam Larsen is excited to return to the Houston Symphony after Bluebeard’s Castle. He has designed video projections for more than 200 productions for theatre, dance, symphony, and opera. Projects have ranged from intimate to extravagant and have appeared both on Broadway and in most of the major venues across the country.

Adam’s multifaceted work has led to collaborations with leading voices in symphony and opera, including Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Esperanza Spalding, Missy Mazzoli, and Ellen Reid. Designs include Hal Prince’s LoveMusik on Broadway; Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking The Waves at Opera Philadelphia and the Prototype Festival; Lee Breuer’s The Gospel at Colonus at the Athens, Edinburgh, and Spoleto festivals; Esperanza Spalding’s 12 Little Spells national tour; David Lang’s Prisoner of the State at the New York Philharmonic; Watermill at the BAM Next Wave Festival; Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the Singapore and Edinburgh festivals; Janáček’s From the House of the Dead at Canadian Opera; Bernstein’s Mass at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Lincoln Center; Britten’s Peter Grimes, Bernstein’s On the Town, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, as well as all nine seasons of the SoundBox series, at San Francisco Symphony.

He recently directed and designed two large-scale filmic installations in Omaha, Nebraska: A Worm’s Eye View, a 360-degree cycloramic experience for the Common Senses Autism Festival; and Nebraska Flatwater, a 12-projector meditation on the Nebraska landscape at Gallery 1516. In addition, Adam produced and directed two feature length documentaries about disability: Neurotypical, about autism from the perspective of autistics, which aired on the PBS series P.O.V.; and Undersung, in collaboration with MacArthur Award-winning poet, Heather McHugh, about caregivers of severely disabled family members.

Kyle MacLachlan is best known for his iconic performance as FBI Agent Dale Cooper in David Lynch’s groundbreaking series Twin Peaks, for which he received two Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe Award in 1990, and for his reprisal of the role 27 years later in Twin Peaks: The Return, which earned him a 2018 Golden Globe nomination.

Kyle made his feature film debut in 1984 in the futuristic drama Dune, directed by David Lynch. This was followed by his second collaboration with Lynch in 1986 in the classic film Blue Velvet.

Throughout his storied career, in addition to Lynch, Kyle has worked with some of cinema’s most celebrated directors, including Oliver Stone, Steven Soderbergh, Alfonso Cuaron, Luca Guadagnino, Paul Verhoeven, and John Frankenheimer.

Kyle starred in the Steven Spielberg production of The Flintstones and voiced the role of Dad in Pixar’s Oscar-winning film Inside Out.

In addition to many other film roles, he also starred in memorable TV roles in HBO’s Sex and the City, as well as in Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, The Good Wife, and Portlandia.

Kyle recently received much critical acclaim for his portrayal of FDR in the PBS limited series Atlantic Crossing.

He will next be seen starring in Amazon’s upcoming series Fallout from Jonah Nolan (Westworld) and opposite Bob Odenkirk in the AMC series Lucky Hank.