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.

Anthony J. Maglione is an American conductor, composer, producer, and tenor whose career reflects a deep commitment to artistic excellence, collaboration, and innovation in the choral arts. In addition to his work with the Houston Symphony Chorus, he serves as Director of Choral Studies at the University of Houston and Artistic Director of Cardinalis, a professional choir based in Kansas City. A graduate of Westminster Choir College of Rider University, East Carolina University, and the University of California, Los Angeles, Maglione has established a national reputation as a versatile musician and advocate for compelling contemporary choral music.

As a conductor, Maglione has prepared choirs for performances with artists and ensembles including Joyce DiDonato, The King’s Singers, The Canadian Brass, Boston Camerata, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. A sought-after clinician and guest conductor, Maglione has led honor choirs nationwide and served on the summer faculty at Westminster Choir College from 2008 to 2024.

A regularly commissioned and published composer, Maglione’s compositions have been performed at state, regional, and national conventions and appear on recordings released by Albany, Centaur, GIA Choral Works, and Gothic Records, as well as in television and video games. Maglione is also active as a producer, gaining national attention for his role in Verdigris ensemble’s recording of Betty’s Notebook by Nicholas Reeves, a groundbreaking programmable art music project. As a tenor, he has performed with ensembles including Capella Romana, Spire Chamber Ensemble, and the Grammy-nominated St. Tikhon Choir.

Houston Chamber Choir Artistic Director, Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, enjoys an international reputation as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and presenter. She has led acclaimed choral performances in numerous countries throughout Europe as well as in most of the states of the United States.

Weber is the Madison Endowed Professor of Music Emeritus at the University of Houston Moores School of Music as well as Director Emeritus of the Houston Symphony Chorus. Before coming to the University of Houston, where she served as Director of Choral Studies and directed the internationally ranked Concert Chorale, she taught 13 years of public school vocal music, K–12.

Choirs under Weber’s direction have won top prizes at prestigious competitions in Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, and Austria. They have also been featured at multiple state, regional, and national conferences in the U.S. (Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Choral Directors Association, Southwest Division of American Choral Directors Association, American Choral Directors Association, and National Collegiate Choral Organization).

Internationally, she has conducted at Leipzig’s Bachfest and the Litomysil Festival in the Czech Republic and has judged choral competitions in Europe and throughout the U.S.

In the summer of 2013, Weber became the 13^th person and first woman to receive the Texas Choral Directors Association’s coveted Texas Choirmaster Award. She serves as editor of the Betsy Cook Weber Choral Series with Alliance Music Publishing and has prepared singers for early music orchestras Ars Lyrica and Mercury Houston as well as for touring shows, including Josh Groban, NBC’s Clash of the Choirs, Telemundo’s Latin Grammys, Star Wars in Concert, Andreas Bocelli, Eric Whitacre, and The Eagles.

The Houston Symphony Chorus is the official choral unit of the Houston Symphony and consists of highly skilled and talented volunteer singers. Over the years, members of this historic ensemble have learned and performed the world’s great choral orchestral masterworks under the batons of Juraj Valčuha, Andrés Orozco Estrada, Hans Graf, Christoph Eschenbach, Robert Shaw, and Helmuth Rilling, among many others.

In addition, the Chorus enjoys participating in the Houston Symphony’s popular programming under the batons of conductors such as Steven Reineke and Michael Krajewski. Recently, the ensemble sang the closing subscription concerts with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic. Singers are selected for specific programs for which they have indicated interest. A singer might choose to perform in all 45 concerts, as was the case in a recent season, or might elect to participate in a single series. The Houston Symphony Chorus holds auditions by appointment and welcomes inquiries from interested singers.

The Houston Chamber Choir is a Grammy-winning professional ensemble whose mission is to share choral music performed at the highest level. Proud to be a part of Houston's vibrant arts scene, the Chamber Choir looks forward to collaborations with some of the city's finest groups during its 30^th anniversary season featuring everything from an exciting world premiere to traditional crowd favorites. Led by Founder and Artistic Director Robert Simpson and Artistic Director Designate Betsy Cook Weber, the Houston Chamber Choir has been described by The Tallis Scholars founder Peter Phillips as “one of this country’s leading ensembles." The Choir comprises 24 professional singers, most of whom have studied at the top music schools and conservatories in the United States. These musicians are selected through rigorous auditions from the finest singers in our region and are compensated for all rehearsals and performances. The Chamber Choir’s travels have taken it on tour in this country and abroad. Its first national exposure came in 1999, four years after its founding, when it was invited to perform at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Chicago’s famed Orchestra Hall. The Chamber Choir has received similar invitations from Chorus America, The American Guild of Organists,

The Association of Anglican Musicians, the Association of Lutheran Musicians, the Texas Choral Directors Association, and the Organization of American Kodály Educators. It will tour Latvia, Estonia, and Sweden in 2025 in celebration of its 30^th anniversary. The Chamber Choir is proud to offer a wide breadth of recorded albums. Highlights include Ravishingly Russian, a collection of 19^th- and 20^th-century Russian secular choral music; the world premiere recording of Psalmi ad Vesperasby 17^th-century Italian composer Giovanni Paolo Colonna; and the Grammy-winning Duruflé, Complete Choral Works. Winner of Best Choral Performance at the 62^nd Annual Grammy Awards and winner of Chorus America's 2018 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, the Houston Chamber Choir has established itself as one of the premier professional choirs in the United States, serving Houston through concerts and educational initiatives that enlighten, entertain, and educate people of all ages.

Baritone Aleksey Bogdanov’s 2026–27 Season includes his role and house debut with The Dallas Opera in Lohengrin (Telramund) and returns to San Francisco Opera for Simon Boccanegra (Paolo), The Atlanta Opera for Silent Night (Lieutenant Horstmayer), and The Metropolitan Opera for Otello (Montano) and La fanciulla del West (Jack Rance, cover). On the concert stage, he debuts with the Houston Symphony in Rachmaninoff’s Spring, the Santa Fe Symphony in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, and returns to The Florida Orchestra for concert performances of Fidelio (Don Pizarro).

Highlights of recent seasons include debuts with Lyric Opera of Chicago in Salome (Erster Nazarener), The Atlanta Opera in Götterdämmerung (Alberich), San Diego Opera in Carmen (Escamillo), and at Carnegie Hall in Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, as well as returns to San Francisco Opera in Rigoletto (Il Conte di Monterone) and The Metropolitan Opera in Arabella(Mandryka, cover). During the 2024–25 Season, he made his debut with Pacific Symphony in Das Rheingold (Donner) and appeared with The Metropolitan Opera in Die Frau ohne Schatten (Der Einäugige) and Pique Dame (Tomsky, cover); San Francisco Opera in Un ballo in maschera (Renato, cover) and Tristan und Isolde (Kurwenal, cover); Palm Beach Opera in Roméo et Juliette (Capulet); and The Glimmerglass Festival in The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow)

Other notable performances include Aleksey’s debut with Gran Teatre del Liceu in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Crespel/Luther); his Royal Swedish Opera debut in La fanciulla del West (Jack Rance); the title role in Rigoletto with Nashville Opera and Central City Opera; Madama Butterfly (Sharpless) with Tulsa Opera; Aida (Amonasro) with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras; Tiefland(Sebastiano) with Sarasota Opera; La fanciulla del West (Jack Rance) with Opera Carolina; and Hérodiade (Vitellius) with Washington Concert Opera.

On the concert stage, Bogdanov has performed Verdi’s Requiem with the San Diego Symphony, Colorado Symphony, and The Phoenix Symphony; Boris Godunov (Shchelkalov) with the San Francisco Symphony; Gurre-Lieder (Peasant/Narrator) with the KBS Symphony Orchestra; Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Cathedral Choral Society at the Washington National Cathedral; A Hand of Bridge (Barber) with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; and Messiah with the Richmond Symphony.