Houston Symphony Music Director Juraj Valčuha is recognized for his effortless expressiveness and depth of musicianship. He is known for his sharp baton technique, natural stage presence, and the impressive ease of his interpretations that translate even the most complex scores into immersive experiences.

Before joining the Houston Symphony in June 2022, Valčuha 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. In 2023, he assumed the post of Principal Guest Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.

The 2005–06 Season marked the start of his international career on the podium of the Orchestre National de France followed by remarkable debuts in the United Kingdom with the Philharmonia London, in Germany with the Munich Philharmonic, in the United States with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and in Italy with Puccini’s La bohème in Bologna.

He has since led the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Montréal Symphony, and the NHK and Yomiuri orchestras in Tokyo.

He enjoys regular collaborations with the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the San Francisco Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. International touring with the Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI took them to the Musikverein in Vienna, Philharmonie in Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Zurich, and Munich; to the Enesco Festival in Bucharest; and to the Abu Dhabi Classics. With the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, he visited Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn to mark the 100^th anniversary of the Baltic nations.

Valčuha champions the compositions of living composers and programs contemporary pieces in most of his concerts. He has conducted world premieres, including Christopher Rouse’s Supplica with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, 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 Seasons at the Melos-Ethos Festival in Bratislava. Other composers he has supported and continues to follow with interest are Bryce Dessner, Steven Stucky, Andrew Norman, James MacMillan, Luca Francesconi, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Anna Clyne, Julia Wolfe, and Jessie Montgomery, among others.

Including his engagements in Houston, the 2023–24 Season took him to the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, San Francisco Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra as well as to the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo. On the European stage, he performed La fanciulla del West and Tristan und Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Jenůfa at the Opera di Roma. He led concerts with the RAI Orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestre National de France, the NDR, SWR, and the Bamberg Symphony, among others.

In the 2024–25 Season, Valčuha joined the Semperoper in Dresden with Strauss’s Salome as well as the Paris Opéra Bastille with Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame. In addition to his concerts with the Houston Symphony, he returned to the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the London Philharmonic, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester, the San Francisco Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo.

The 2025–26 season marks his fourth season with the Houston Symphony. His guest engagements will lead him to the San Francisco, Chicago, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. In Europe, he will join the Orchestre National de France, the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, the Bamberg Symphony, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the Basque National Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and on tour, and the RAI National Orchestra in Turin. On the opera stage, he will conduct Pelleas et Mélisande at the Geneva Opera as well as Don Carlo and La bohème at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

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

With a career spanning almost four decades, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell CBE is one of the most celebrated artists of our time. He has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and regularly appears as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor, and as the Music Director of London’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields. In 2025, he was awarded an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Following his world premiere recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s Violin Concerto, Bell gives the work’s UK, North American, and Canadian premieres at London’s BBC Proms, with the New York Philharmonic, and during his season-long tenure as a Toronto Symphony Spotlight Artist, respectively. He also leads extensive U.S. and European tours with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields; makes his first appearances as the New Jersey Symphony’s inaugural Principal Guest Conductor; tours Asia with Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra; and joins Steven Isserlis and Evgeny Kissin for trio programs in New York, Paris, Vienna, and Prague.

Bell has been nominated for six Grammy awards, named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, recognized with the Avery Fisher Prize, and honored as an “Indiana Living Legend.”

His many collaborators include Emanuel Ax, Chris Botti, Chick Corea, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Lang Lang, Dave Matthews, Anoushka Shankar, Regina Spektor, Sting, and Daniil Trifonov.

Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. After participating in former president Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba, he headlined the subsequent Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special.

Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin. For more info, visit joshuabell.com.