Nov. 21, 22 & 23
Journey to Light: Valčuha Conducts Shostakovich 10
About This Concert
Under Joseph Stalin’s brutal regime, being an artist meant extreme censorship, unimaginable pressure, and life-or-death stakes. No composer of the era embodied this more than Dmitri Shostakovich, and in his Symphony No. 10—the first of his symphonies to be composed after Stalin’s death—his newfound artistic freedom unleashed an explosive torrent of earth-shaking emotional power. Music Director Juraj Valčuha leads this extraordinary darkness-to-light journey, and Baiba Skride heats up Jones Hall with Britten’s fiery Violin Concerto.

What To Expect?
A powerful, unforgettable symphonic journey
A “Bravo”-worthy finale: Shostakovich’s epic Symphony No. 10 builds to a heart-pounding, earth-shattering conclusion guaranteed to leave you exhilarated
Baiba Skride catapulted to international stardom by clinching the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Violin Contest, and her performance of Britten’s whirlwind of a concerto will leave you breathless
Expect catharsis and confrontation—a stirring program the confronts darkness and emerges triumphant.
Program
BRITTEN
Violin Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH
Symphony No. 10
Tickets
In-Hall Tickets
Bringing A Group Of 10 Or More? Click Here for Group Sales
Friday, Nov. 21
7:30 P.M. at Jones Hall
Saturday, Nov. 22
7:30 P.M. at Jones Hall
Sunday, Nov. 23
2:00 P.M. at Jones Hall
Livestream Access
Saturday, Nov. 22
7:30 P.M. at Jones Hall

Your Music. Your Season. Your Way.
Pick 3 or more concerts and enjoy big savings with our Pick Your Own Subscriptions. Choose your favorite performances — in-hall or livestream — and save up to 43%. Click Here to Start Saving
Your Music. Your Season. Your Way.
Pick 3 or more concerts and enjoy big savings with our Pick Your Own Subscriptions. Choose your favorite performances — in-hall or livestream — and save up to 43%.
Click Here to Start Saving
Artists

Juraj Valčuha
conductor
View Biography

Baiba Skride
violin
View Biography
Sponsors

Gold Classics
C. Howard Pieper Foundation
Guarantor
Video enhancement of Houston Symphony concerts is made possible by the Albert & Ethel Herzstein Foundation through a special gift celebrating the foundation's 50th anniversary in 2015
Extras
Additional Information
Doors Open:
60 mins. pre-concert
Prelude:
45 mins. pre-concert
Duration
Approx. 120 mins
Intermission
20 mins.
Age Limit
Age 6+
Visitor Info
Parking and Directions
Learn More >In-Hall Experience
Learn More >Ticket Policies
Learn More >Accessibility
Learn More >You Might Also Like
Join us for an unforgettable new Classical season, featuring beloved masterpieces like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and The Planets, world-renowned artists like Joshua Bell and Augustin Hadelich, music festivals, world premieres, a celebration of America at 250, and so much more!
View Full Season
Friday, Oct. 10–Sunday, Oct. 12
Jean-Yves Thibaudet + The Three-Cornered Hat

Friday, Oct. 17–Sunday, Oct. 19
Gershwin & Grimaud: Jazz Meets Symphony

Saturday, Nov. 8–Sunday, Nov. 9
Shall We Dance?

Friday, Nov. 21–Sunday, Nov. 23
Journey to Light: Valčuha Conducts Shostakovich 10

Friday, Nov. 28–Sunday, Nov. 30
Thanksgiving Weekend: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1

Friday, Jan. 23–Sunday, Jan. 25
Marin Alsop Conducts Brahms 2

Friday, Feb. 13–Sunday, Feb. 15
Symphonie espagnole + Symphonie fantastique

Friday, Feb. 20–Sunday, Feb. 22
Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet

Saturday, Feb. 28–Sunday, Mar. 1
Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde

Friday, Mar. 13–Sunday, Mar. 15
Mozart + Elgar’s Enigma Variations

Friday, Mar. 20–Sunday, Mar. 22
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony + Timpani World Premiere

Friday, Mar. 27–Sunday, Mar. 29
Grieg’s Peer Gynt

Saturday, Apr. 18–Sunday, Apr. 19
Adams Conducts Adams & Appalachian Spring

Thursday, May. 7–Sunday, May. 10
Joshua Bell Returns: The Elements in Concert

Friday, May. 15–Sunday, May. 17
The Planets + Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto

Friday, May. 22–Sunday, May. 24
Valčuha Conducts Mahler 9


conductor
Juraj Valčuha
Music Director, Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair
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 100th 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.


Baiba Skride
violin
Baiba Skride’s natural approach to music-making has endeared her to many of today’s most prestigious conductors and orchestras worldwide. She performs regularly with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and NHK Symphony Orchestra.
She enjoys close collaborations with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, Edward Gardner, Susanna Mälkki, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Dima Slobodeniouk, John Storgårds, Juraj Valčuha, and Kazuki Yamada.
Recent highlights include critically acclaimed performances of Shostakovich’s violin concertos with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, and with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester as part of the inaugural Shostakovich Festival. In North America, Skride is a frequent guest with major orchestras including Houston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony.
In 2025, Baiba Skride released the recording <em>Shostakovich Violin Concertos</em> with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons on Deutsche Grammophon. The recording was nominated for an Opus Klassik Award in the category of Best Concert Recording. With Orfeo, she released Gubaidulina’s Triple Concerto with the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Hannover) and Andrew Manze and Britten’s Violin Concerto and Double Concerto with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien and Marin Alsop.
Baiba Skride is an internationally sought-after chamber musician and performs regularly at festivals and concert halls across the world, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Wien, Wigmore Hall London, Louvre Paris, as well as touring in North America and Australia. Skride is an advocate of new music and some of today’s most prominent composers—including Sofia Gubaidulina, Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Sebastian Currier, and Hans Abrahamsen—have written concertos for her.
Skride was born into a musical Latvian family in Riga and continued her studies from 1995 with Petru Munteanu at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre. She plays the ‘Yfrah Neaman’ Stradivarius kindly on loan by the Neaman family through Beare’s International Violin Society.