Opening Weekend: Dvořák’s New World

Houston Symphony Music Director 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 translates even the most complex scores into immersive experiences.

Before joining the Houston Symphony in June 2022, Juraj 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.

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

In Europe, he is acclaimed on the podium of the Munich Philharmonic, the NDR Hamburg and Frankfurt Radio orchestras, as well as the Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia London, and the Swedish Radio Orchestra.

Juraj champions the compositions of living composers and aims to program 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 Thorvaldsdottir, 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 Fanciulla del West and Tristan and Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Jenufa 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 2024–2025 Season Juraj will join the Semperoper in Dresden with Strauss´ Salomé as well as the Paris Opéra Bastille with Janacek´s The Cunning Little Vixen and the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Tchaikovsky´s Pique Dame. In the coming months, in addition to his concerts with the Houston Symphony, he will return 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.

Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Juraj 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.

The Czech singer, Svatopluk Sem, is the leading baritone of the National Opera in Prague, where he performs all the main roles of the Czech repertoire, as well as Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Escamillo, Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Klingsor (Parsifal), Rigoletto, Gérard (Andrea Chenier), Amonasro, Gianni Schicchi, Falstaff, Figaro, and Tonio (Pagliacci). He has performed, among others, at the Tokyo Opera, Danish Opera in Copenhagen, Vienna State Opera (Dalibor), Hungarian National Opera in Budapest (Dvořák´s The Spectre´s Bride), and Warsaw Opera (The Cunning Little Vixen). In 2016, he toured Japan with the Prague National Opera. At the Teatro Regio in Torino, he sang the Janáček trilogy (Jenufa, Katja Kabanova, The Cunning Little Vixen) as well as Tchaikovsky´s Eugene Onegin.

At the London Barbican, he recorded for the BBC a documentary, Rolando Meets Don Giovanni. At the Proms, he sang and video recorded Janacek´s Makropoulos Case with Karita Mattila conducted by Jiri Belohlavek. He recorded CDs of Smetana´s Bartered Bride for Harmonia Mundi. With Radio France, he sang Martinů’s Czech Rhapsody, as well as with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Belohlavek. He also sang this piece for the Bavarian Radio and on numerous international tours with the Czech Philharmonic to Japan, South Korea, the Hong Kong Festival, China, and Spain. Svatopluk is the recipient of the prestigious Karek Roden Award, which he received three times, and the Thalia Award for the best male Opera Performer in 2017. He has performed under the direction of Gerd Albrecht, Jakob Hrusa, John Fiore, Gianandrea Noseda, Libor Pesek, Tomas Netopil, and Juraj Valčuha. This year, besides new productions at the Prague Opera, he will perform at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland; and at the Bratislava Opera, he will sing in a new production of The Cunning Little Vixen under the direction of Juraj Valčuha.

Joshua Habermann is in his sixteenth season as Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, one of the nation’s premiere professional chamber choirs. Since joining the ensemble, he has broadened its repertoire to include choral-orchestral masterworks and unique concert experiences ranging from early music to new commissions. Under his leadership, the Desert Chorale has been featured at regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, and its summer and winter festivals are among the America’s largest choral events.

Habermann’s experience with symphonic choruses spans over three decades, encompassing the full range of the choral-orchestral repertoire. From 2011 to 2022 he was director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus, where highlights included Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, the Requiem Masses of Mozart, Brahms, and Verdi, Elgarʻs Dream of Gerontius, Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony, Rachmaninov’s The Bells, and Vaughan-Williams’ Sea Symphony. He is a frequent guest conductor, and in  2022-2023 prepared Handel’s Messiah, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem for the San Francisco Symphony.

A passional advocate for music education, Joshua Habermann is a regular clinician for state and national events, and has led honor choirs and choral festivals in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. In 2024 he conducted Cantatas 72, 73 and 92 for Bach Santiago (Chile), a concert series committed to the first full cycle of Bach Cantatas in South America.

As a singer (tenor) Habermann has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus (Eugene, Oregon), and Conspirare (Austin, Texas). He teaches choral literature at the University of North Texas.

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.

Julia C. Hall is the retired chair of the vocal music department at Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. In addition to her duties as the primary HSPVA voice instructor, she conducted the Concert Singers, Treble Choir, Chorale, and HSPVA Madrigal Singers. Before returning to HSPVA, her high school alma mater, Julia taught at local schools. Currently, she maintains a private voice studio and teaches private voice at Tomball Memorial High School. She is an active clinician and adjudicator.  In 1986, Julia joined the Houston Symphony Chorus. She has also sung in the Houston Chamber Choir and Houston Masterworks Chorus. She returned to the HSC in 2015 and was named a rehearsal conductor in 2016. She prepared the chorus for the 2019 Andrea Bocelli concert and assisted in the preparations of Messiah, John Williams Pops concert, and Verdi Requiem, among others. In 2023, she was appointed HSC Assistant Director and prepared the Chorus for the Holiday POPS.

Julia conducted two invited choirs at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention:  Memorial Advanced Treble Choir and HSPVA Treble Chorus. In 2022, the HSPVA Chorale placed as first runner-up in American Classics Celebration of Excellence; in 2023, it won first place in this prestigious competition. Her HSPVA Madrigal Singers presented the 2021 Honor Choir concert for American Classics Madrigal and Chamber Choir Festival and was named a Choir of Distinction in 2022 and 2023. Julia has been an active Episcopal church musician in several Diocese of Texas churches, as a singer, director of music, and children’s choir director; and she served on the Episcopal Diocese of Texas Music Commission. She co-conducted the Diocese of Texas Diocesan choir in a tour to the National Cathedral, and in 2023, she conducted the Diocesan Choral Festival. Julia earned her bachelor of music education, cum laude, from the University of St. Thomas and her master of music, choral conducting, from the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Kappa Lambda honor societies, Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Choral Directors Association, American Choral Directors Association, and Texas Music Adjudicators Association.

Robert Simpson is Founder and Artistic Director of the Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir. He is also canon for music at the historic Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal), Houston, Texas, and lecturer of church music at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. Robert received Chorus America’s Michael Korn Founders Award for the Development of the Professional Choral Art and The American Prize. The Houston Chamber Choir received The American Prize and was honored by Chorus America with the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence. Following his graduation with honors from Brown University and The School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Robert studied at the Hochschule für Musik, Cologne, Germany. His teachers have included organists Barclay Wood, Robert Baker, and Michael Schneider and conductors Abraham Kaplan, Peter Neumann, Gustaf Sjökvist, and Eric Ericson. He earned associate and choirmaster certificates from the American Guild of Organists, receiving the S. Lewis Elmer Prize for highest test scores.

Choirs under his direction have toured the United States, Europe, and Mexico, and performed before national conventions of Chorus America, the American Choral Directors Association, The American Guild of Organists, The Association of Anglican Musicians, and The Hymn Society of America. They have appeared nationally on CBS, ABC, and American Public Radio. Prior to moving to Texas, Robert was organist-choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta, Georgia, and adjunct professor of organ at Georgia State University. He has also served as senior teaching fellow at the University of Texas, Austin. An active clinician and guest conductor, he has been on the faculty of Lake Junaluska and Kanuga conference centers in North Carolina, the Sewanee Church Music Conference at the University of the South, the Evergreen Colorado Music Conference, and choral festivals in Orlando, Sacramento, and San Jose. Robert served as vice chair of the Standing Commission on Church Music for the Episcopal Church and on the editorial board of the African American hymnal, Lift Every Voice and Sing II. He is a former member of the Chorus America board, a national service organization for professional and volunteer choirs.

Dr. Betsy Cook Weber is the Madison Endowed Professor of Music Emeritus and former director of choral studies at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. She is also Director Emeritus of the Houston Symphony Chorus, where she prepared programs for some of the world’s leading orchestral conductors including Juraj Valčuha, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Jane Glover, and Nicholas McGegan, among many others. Before coming to the University of Houston, Betsy taught vocal music, K-12, in the public schools. She is currently active internationally as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and lecturer. Choirs under her direction, including the University of Houston Concert Chorale, have been featured at multiple state and national conventions, including the American Choral Directors Association national conventions in Miami in 2007 and Minneapolis in 2017, and the NCCO convention as featured choir in 2017.

Internationally, under her leadership, Concert Chorale won top prizes at prestigious competitions in Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, and Austria.In the summer of 2013, Betsy 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. Betsy has prepared singers for early music orchestras Ars Lyrica and Mercury Houston and is also routinely called upon to prepare singers 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. Betsy is grateful for the education she has received. She holds degrees from the University of North Texas, Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ), and the University of Houston.

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.