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Conductor Juraj Valčuha is recognized for the effortless expressiveness and the depth of his musicianship. With a sharp baton technique and a natural stage presence, it is the impressive ease of his interpretations that translate even the most complex scores into immersive experiences.  

Since June 2022 Valčuha is Music Director of the Houston Symphony. He is also 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. 

2005/2006 marked the start of his international career 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 U.S. with the Pittsburgh Symphony and in Italy with Puccini´s La Boheme 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 and Milan´s Filarmonica della Scala, Montréal Symphony, NHK and Yomiuri orchestras Tokyo. 

In the USA he enjoys regular collaborations with the Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony and the 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 Bucarest 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 hr Frankfurt Radio orchestras, the Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia London. 

His engagements in the 2022/2023 season will take him to the Houston, Pittsburgh and San Francisco Orchestras and the Orchestra dell´Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.  He will conduct Verdi´s Don Carlo at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, La Boheme and Tristan & Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera Munich.  

Juraj Valcuha champions the compositions of living composers and is aiming to programm contemporary pieces in most of his concerts. With the Pittsburgh Symphony he premiered Christopher Rouses´s “Supplica”. With the BBC Symphony in Manchester he led the first performance of Steven Mackey´s violin concerto with Leila Josefowitz.  

In 2005 he conducted, in the presence of the composer Steve Reich´s Four Sections, at the Melos-Ethos Festival in Bratislava. Some other composers he is interested in are Brice Dessner, Steven Stucky, Andrew Dorman, James MacMillan, Luca Francesconi among others. 

Engagements in the 2022-23 season will take him to the orchestras in Houston, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, in Rome ad Berlin. He will conduct Verdi´s Don Carlo in Napoli, Tristan und Isolde at the Bavarian Opera Munich.  

Born in Bratislava Slovakia, he studied composition and conducting in his birth place, then in St Petersburg (with Ilya Musin) as well as in Paris.  

“With prodigious technique and rhapsodic flair, Mr. Abduraimov dispatched the work’s challenges, including burst upon burst of arm-blurring octaves, with eerie command.” (The New York Times)

Behzod Abduraimov performs with renowned orchestras worldwide including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Concertgebouworkest and with prestigious conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Lorenzo Viotti, James Gaffigan, Jakub Hrůša, Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Gustavo Dudamel.

In recital Behzod has appeared a number of times at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and has recently been presented by Chicago Symphony, Kölner Philharmonie and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Festival appearances include Aspen, Verbier, Rheingau, La Roque Antheron and Lucerne Festivals.

Forthcoming engagements include Chicago Symphony under Lahav Shani, returns to the Concertgebouworkest, St Petersburgh Philharmonic, Seattle and Dallas Symphonies as well as Oslo and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras. Behzod will be returning to the Barbican Hall, 92nd Street Y, Spivey Hall, Vancouver Recital Series as well as The Conrad Center, La Jolla.

2020 saw the release of two recordings: Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan, recorded on Rachmaninov’s own piano from Villa Senar for Sony Classical and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 with Concertgebouworkest under Valery Gergiev, for the RCO live label. Both recordings were nominated for the 2020 Opus Klassik awards in multiple categories. A film of his BBC Proms debut in 2016, with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Valery Gergiev, was released as a DVD in 2018.His 2012 debut CD of Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Prokofiev for Decca won the Choc de Classica and Diapason Découverte and his first concerto disc for the label featured Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3 and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No.1. 

Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1990, Behzod began the piano aged five as a pupil of Tamara Popovich at Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent. In 2009, he won First Prize at the London International Piano Competition with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3. He studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University, Missouri, where he is Artist-in-Residence.