Mark Nuccio Plays Copland

Juraj Valcuha is 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.

He studied composition and conducting in Bratislava, St. Petersburg (with Ilya Musin) and Paris where he made his debut with the Orchestre National de France in 2005. He has since led the Philharmonia, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra dell´Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome, and Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala. In North America Juraj Valcuha has regularly led the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh, Boston, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Cincinnati, National, Minnesota, and Montreal symphony orchestras. Touring with Orchestra della Rai took them to the Abu Dhabi Classics, Cologne, Zurich, Munich, Musikverein in Vienna, and Philharmonie in Berlin.

From 2017 to 2020, he made debuts with the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra and return engagements with the New York Philharmonic in New York and at Bravo!Vail Festival. He joined the Minnesota, Montréal, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Houston, and Dallas symphony orchestras. In Europe he was acclaimed on the podium of the Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Czech Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, the NDR Hamburg and hr Frankfurt Radio orchestras, BBC Symphony, and Philharmonia London. With the Konzerthausorchester Berlin they made a tour to Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Baltic nations.

On the opera stage, he recently conducted Faust in Florence, Jenufa, Peter Grimes and Salomé in Bologna, Elektra, Carmen, Bluebeard´s Castle, Valkyria, The Girl of the Golden West, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Katja Kabanova, and Pique Dame at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli. Last year he conducted an opera production of Tristan and Isolde at Teatro Comunale Bologna as well as Tosca with Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann in the summer openair season of Teatro San Carlo.

Juraj Valcuha is the recipient of the Premio Abbiati 2018 in the category Best Conductor.

Mark Nuccio began his position as principal clarinet with the Houston Symphony in the 2016–17 season after 17 years with the New York Philharmonic. He also serves as clarinet faculties at both Northwestern University in Chicago and the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. Nuccio joined the New York Philharmonic in 1999 as Associate Principal and Solo E-flat Clarinetist and served as Acting principal Clarinet with the New York Philharmonic from 2009 to 2013. Prior to his tenure in New York, he 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, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, André Previn, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Gustavo Dudamel. A Colorado native, 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.