(Credit:  Ben Cordua)

Music Director and Holder of the Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair Juraj Valčuha has extended his contract with the Houston Symphony.

The Music Director will now remain with the orchestra through the 2025—2026 season. Valčuha began his tenure as Music Director during the 2022–23 season, having guest conducted the orchestra for the first time in 2011.

Valčuha is also the Music Director of the Teatro di San Carlo and first guest conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was chief conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI from 2009 to 2016.

The Houston Symphony Orchestra’s season opened this past weekend with a program that included music by Messiaen, Poulenc, and Ravel.