Carnegie Hall

The multiple award–winning conductor Theodore Kuchar is the most-recorded conductor of his generation and appears on more than 140 recordings for the Naxos, Brilliant Classics, Ondine, Marco Polo, Toccata Classics, and Centaur labels. He was recently appointed principal conductor of the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine and has served as the artistic director and principal conductor of two of Europe’s leading orchestras—the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra—while also serving as the principal conductor of the Slovak Sinfonietta. In the 2011–2012 season, Mr. Kuchar commenced his tenure as the artistic director and principal conductor of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra and, prior to that, served as the music director and principal conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia. In addition to his conducting activities, he has served as the artistic director of two of the world’s preeminent chamber music festivals: the Australian Festival of Chamber Music (1991–2007) and Nevada Chamber Music Festival (2003–2018). In September 2021, Mr. Kuchar commenced duties as the artistic director and principal conductor of The Thomas de Hartmann Project, a concert and recording project which BBC Radio 3 recently described as “arguably the most important recording project by a major, yet relatively unknown, composer of this new decade.”

Mr. Kuchar’s longest titled affiliation and relationship is with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. They have appeared together in more than 250 performances, and their discography totals more than 80 recordings. Most recently, they completed a 44-concert tour of North America under the auspices of Columbia Artists Management in January–March 2017. In September 2018, Mr. Kuchar commenced a relationship with the Lviv National Opera, directing a new production of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Pulcinella. In February 2020, he directed the world premiere of the opera Lys Mykyta by Ukrainian composer Ivan Nebesnyy. With the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, he will undertake a six-week United States tour in January and February 2023, which includes performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Described as a “poet of piano” by Le Soir (Belgium), Ukrainian-born American Stanislav Khristenko has performed as a pianist in some of the world’s major concert halls and recently launched his second career as a conductor. He has been praised for his “emotional intensity,” “charismatic expression,” and “palette of touches” by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Miami Herald.

In recent years, Mr. Khristenko has appeared as a piano soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra; Phoenix and Richmond symphonies; Belgian National Orchestra; Puerto Rico, Bilbao, Madrid, and Tenerife symphony orchestras; Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège; and Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. His performance highlights include solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, as well as performances with orchestras in the Berlin Philharmonie, Seoul Arts Center, Prague’s Rudolfinum, and Moscow Conservatory’s Great Hall. His recordings have been released on the Steinway & Sons (Fantasies and Romeo and Juliet), Naxos (Soler: Keyboard Sonatas Nos. 63–66), Oehms Classics, and Toccata Classics (Ernst Krenek: Piano Works) labels.

A prizewinner at more than 30 international piano competitions, Mr. Khristenko recently started an educational project for young pianists called “Rethink Piano.” The project includes discussions about all aspects of competitions and a competition simulator that gives young pianists an opportunity to improve their own performance, overcome stress, and develop a strategy for successful professional growth.

In his hometown in Ukraine, Mr. Khristenko initiated a music festival—KharkivMusicFest—that in just four years of existence presented performances of the world’s top musicians and unique projects including a festival orchestra, classical music forum, children’s orchestra, and outreach concerts, among others. As a music director, he also founded the Nova Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra, which performed works by more than 40 composers in its first three seasons.

Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Mr. Khristenko studied with Vera Gornostaeva at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also studied orchestral conducting at the Chopin University of Music with Tomasz Bugaj.

Mr. Khristenko is a Steinway Artist. For details, visit khristenko.com.

The Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine—based in the medieval city of Lviv—was officially established on September 27, 1902, when the first concert of the newly formed orchestra took place in the Philharmonic Theater of Count Stanislav Skarbko (now known as the Maria Zankovetska Theatre). The principal conductor of the orchestra was Ludwik Vitezslav Czelianski. Henryk Jarecki and Henryk Meltzer-Szczawinski worked alongside him as conductors of the orchestra. During the first season, the orchestra performed nearly 115 concerts, with the total number of audience members exceeding 115,000.

In 1933, the orchestra became incorporated as the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine. According to the announcements, the “inaugural” symphony concert took place on November 20, 1933. Led by Adam Soltys as director and artistic director, the orchestra collaborated in performance with prominent composers Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók, and Karol Szymanowski, and soloists Anton Rubinstein, Ferruccio Busoni, Wanda Landowska, Leopold Godowsky, Jacob Milstein, and Eugène Ysaÿe, among many others.

Since the 1950s, many of the world’s greatest musicians have performed with the orchestra, including Sviatoslav Richter, Heinrich and Stanislav Neuhaus, Emil Gilels, Maria Yudina, David and Igor Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gidon Kremer, Leonid Kogan, Natalia Gutman, Oleksandr Slobodyanyk, and Oleh Krysa.

Some of the most famous conductors in classical music have worked with the orchestra as well, including Kirill Kondrashin, Fuat Mansurov, Natan Rakhlin, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Reinhold Glière, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Nikolae Popescu, Kurt Masur, Saulius Sondeckis, Theodore Kuchar, and Mariss Jansons, along with Ukrainian conductors Stefan Turchak, Fedor Glushchenko, Igor Blazhkov, Roman Kofman, Volodymyr Kozhukhar, and Volodymyr Sirenko. After two seasons as the orchestra’s principal guest conductor, Mr. Kuchar was appointed as the principal conductor of the orchestra in 2022.

The Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine has toured extensively around the world, to countries that include Poland, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the People’s Republic of China. During the past several seasons, it has completed highly acclaimed recordings for major international labels that include Naxos, Toccata Classics, and Brilliant Classics.