HOUSTON — On May 20, 21 and 22, Houston Symphony Music Director Designate Juraj Valčuha leads the orchestra, chorus and solo vocalists in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. This marks Valčuha’s first and only weekend of performances with the orchestra as Music Director Designate.
At a media briefing on Thursday, May 19, Valčuha spoke with Houston Symphony Executive Director/CEO John Mangum about his vision for the Symphony’s next chapter and his desire to further contribute to its reputation for musical excellence, citing the organization’s legacy of Music Directors who drove the orchestra to play with both great technical precision as well as a sense of ensemble and refinement. He also spoke about his inspiration for the 2022–23 Season programming, explaining that choosing pieces of the highest musical quality was a key factor in building a diverse season representative of cultures from around the world.
In July 2021, Houston Symphony announced Valčuha as the Symphony’s next Music Director. He will formally begin his appointment during the Symphony’s 2022–23 Season with Verdi’s Requiem, September 16, 17 and 18. Valčuha succeeds esteemed conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, whose tenure concludes at the end of the 2021–22 Season after eight seasons with the orchestra.
An internationally acclaimed conductor, Valčuha has led the most renowned orchestras around the world and currently serves as Music Director of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, and First Guest Conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Germany.
For more information about Valčuha’s background and vision, along with b-roll of the media briefing and this week’s rehearsals, please visit ckp.xtensio.com/JurajValcuha2022.
ABOUT HOUSTON SYMPHONY
During the 2021–22 Season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its final season under Andrés Orozco-Estrada as Music Director and continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring, and recording activities. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $28.8 million (FY22), the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents nearly 170 (FY19) concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s two Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 1,000 (FY19) community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching more than 200,000 (FY19) people in Greater Houston annually, prior to COVID-19.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020 and cancelling the remainder of 2019–20 events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Symphony resumed activities in May 2020, opening the 2020–21 Season on schedule in September 2020 with small audiences of 150, which the Symphony gradually increased to 450 audience members per performance. Due to the financial impact of the canceled 2019–20 Season events, plus the reduction of sales capacity due to audience social distancing in 2020–21, the Symphony cut expenses, reducing planned spending from $36.2 million in 2019–20 to $22.7 million in 2020–21. The Houston Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement team continued to fulfill its mission through creative and virtual means throughout this period. The Symphony successfully completed a full season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, Virgin Classics, and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category.