Songs of the Earth Festival: Debussy La mer

Conductor 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 translate even the most complex scores into immersive experiences. His profound understanding of composer and score, taste, and naturally elegant style make him one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation.

Since 2016 Valčuha has been 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.

The 2005–06 season marked the start of his international career with exciting concerts on the podium of the Orchestre National de France followed by remarkable debuts in the U.K. with the Philharmonia London, in Germany with the Munich Philharmonic, and in the United States with the Pittsburgh Symphony. His Italian debut took place at Teatro Comunale in Bologna with a sensational production of La Bohème.

He has since led the Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, hr Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia London, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Montréal Symphony, and NHK and Yomiuri orchestras in Tokyo. His active career in the U.S. has taken him to the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Utah. He enjoys regular collaborations with orchestras in Houston, Minnesota, New York, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.

International touring with the Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI took them to the Musikverein in Vienna and the Philharmonie in Berlin, as well as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Zurich, Basel, and Munich, and to the Enesco Festival in Bucharest, and to Abu Dhabi Classics. He has also toured with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin to Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn to mark the 100th anniversary of the Baltic nations.

Valčuha champions the compositions of living composers and aims to program contemporary pieces in most of his concerts. He has conducted world premieres including Christopher Rouses´s Supplica with the Pittsburgh Symphony, 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 Sections at the Melos-Ethos Festival in Bratislava. Other composers he has supported and continues to follow with interest are Bryce Dessner, Andrew Norman, Luca Francesconi, James MacMillan, and Steven Stucky, among others.

On the opera stage, he has conducted Madama Butterfly, Elisir d‘amore, and Marriage of Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera Munich; Elektra and Turandot at the Deutsche Oper Berlin; Faust and The Love for three oranges in Florence; Jenufa, Peter Grimes, Salome, Tristan und Isolde, and Ariadne auf Naxos in Bologna; Peter Grimes in Venice; and Elektra, Carmen, Bluebeard’s Castle, Die Walküre, The Girl of the Golden West, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Katja Kabanova, and Pique Dame in Napoli.

Juraj Valčuha was awarded the Premio Abbiati 2018 from Italian Music critics in the category Best Conductor.

His engagements in the 2022–23 season will  take him to the Houston, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco Orchestras, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell´Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Orchestre National de France.  He will conduct Verdi´s Don Carlo at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and La Boheme and Tristan & Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera Munich.

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

jurajvalcuha.com

‘It is like driving a pair of BMWs’, remarked conductor Michael Schønwandt, after directing the Dutch brothers
Lucas (29) and Arthur Jussen (26). Despite their young age, they have been part of the international concert
world for years and are praised vigorously by both press and audience.
The Jussen brothers have performed with orchestras such as the Boston Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras,
Concertgebouworkest, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, as well as Montréal, Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras.
They collaborate with renowned conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Valery
Gergiev, Sir Neville Marriner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Jaap van Zweden.
In July 2022, the Jussen brothers made their debut at the Tanglewood Festival (USA). Together with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons, they gave the US premiere of “Anka kuşu” (Phoenix)
for piano four-hands and orchestra, written for them by Fazıl Say. In the beginning of the new season, they will
tour Europe together with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer. Guest engagements in 2022/2023
will take them to Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra London, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony
Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, hr-Sinfonieorchester, WDR Sinfonieorchester and Deutsches
Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. They are also “Artists in Residence” with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. In
recitals, the duo can be seen in Berlin, London, Paris, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Essen and Dortmund.
Lucas and Arthur received their first piano lessons in their native town of Hilversum. It became clear quickly that
they were great talents. As children, they were already invited to perform for the Dutch Queen Beatrix. First
awards at competitions followed shortly. In 2005, the brothers studied in Portugal and Brazil for nearly a year at
the invitation of Portuguese master pianist Maria João Pires. During the following years they took lessons from
both Pires and two renowned Dutch teachers. Lucas completed his studies with Menahem Pressler in the US
and with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid. Arthur graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he studied
with Jan Wijn.
Recording exclusively with Deutsche Grammophon since 2010, their debut CD with works by Beethoven received
platinum status and was awarded the Edison Klassiek audience award. A Schubert recording and Jeux, a CD
dedicated to French piano music, were subsequently released. Their recording of Mozart’s piano concertos KV
365 and KV 242 together with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner reached gold
status. The Jussen brothers also recorded Poulenc’s double piano concerto and Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Carnival of the
Animals’ with the Concertgebouworkest and Stéphane Denève, as well as concertos and chorales by Bach with
the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. On “The Russian Album” (March 2021) they interpret works for two pianos by
Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Arensky. The latest addition to their discography is “Dutch Masters” (April 2022)
which is devoted to works by Dutch composers, including a collaboration with the Netherlands Radio
Philharmonic Orchestra and Karina Canellakis. The recording was awarded an Edison Klassiek in the category
“Chamber Music” as well as the audience award in September 2022.

Noted by The New York Times as a “virtuosic, deeply expressive shakuhachi player and composer” and the LA Times as one of the “better kept secrets of Southern California music,” Kojiro Umezaki (梅崎康二郎) continues to seek new musical homes for the shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute with centuries of history in Japan.

He has performed regularly with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2001 and appears as performer/co-composer/associate producer on Silkroad’s Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home (2016). Other recordings and appearances with Silkroad include A Playlist Without Borders (2013), the Grammy-nominated album Off the Map (2009), and the Grammy-nominated 2015 documentary film, The Music of Strangers, directed by Morgan Neville.

As a soloist and bandleader, In a Circle Records released 流芳 Flow with pipa virtuoso Wu Man in 2021 and (Cycles) with Joseph Gramley, Dong-Won Kim, Faraz Minooei, and Brooklyn Rider in 2014.

Other notable recordings as performer, composer, and/or producer include 2023 Grammy-nominee Brooklyn Rider’s Dominant Curve (2010), DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll’s perennial “Top Flutist of the Year” Nicole Mitchell’s Mandorla Awakening II (2017), Miles Davis’s keyboardist Kei Akagi’s Aqua Puzzle (2018), and the internationally renowned/world music trailblazers Huun Huur Tu’s Ancestors Call (2010). His appearances in a number of films, TV, and games include Ghost of Tsushima from Sony Interactive Entertainment (2020); Paper Lanterns (2016) directed by Barry Frechette and Max Exposito on the story of atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori and American POWs who perished in the bombing of Hiroshima; Words Can’t Go There directed by David Neptune (2019) on the life of the great shakuhachi innovator John Kaizan Neptune; and The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (2017).

Born to a Japanese father and Danish mother, Kojiro grew up in Tokyo. Currently professor of music at the University of California, Irvine, he is a core faculty member of the Integrated Composition Improvisation and Technology (ICIT) doctoral program where his practice-based research explores global and hybrid practices in music.