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Music Director and Conductor of the Fresno Philharmonic since 2002, Theodore Kuchar, one of the most prolifically recorded conductors of the past decade, appears on over 100 compact discs for the Naxos, Brilliant Classics, Ondine and Marco Polo labels. For the past sixteen years, he has served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of two of Europe's pre-eminent Orchestras, the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Czech Radio Orchestra) and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. He also serves as the Music Director of the Reno Chamber Orchestra in Nevada. Since 2004, he has served as Resident Conductor at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, the educational institution established by the late George Szell, in cooperation with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Highlights of Maestro Kuchar’s conducting activities over the past season have included appearances with the Israel Symphony, the Cape Town Philharmonic, and the Munich Philharmonic. Last winter he led his Janacek Philharmonic on a four-week, nineteen-city concert tour of the United States that included a stop in Fresno. This past summer, in addition to performances in the Czech Republic, South Africa, Israel, and his annual residency at the Kent/Blossom Festival, Maestro Kuchar also conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Caracas.

In recent seasons, Maestro Kuchar’s guest conducting engagements have taken him to major musical centers including Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, Helsinki, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Prague, Seoul, and Sydney. In 2008, he was called upon with a single day’s notice to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra of Wales in Josef Suk's epic Asrael Symphony. Soloists with whom Kuchar has collaborated include James Galway, Jessye Norman, Lynn Harrell, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Frederica von Stade, among others.

As Principal Conductor of the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra since 2005, Kuchar and the orchestra have recorded 10 compact discs, devoted to the complete symphonies of Carl Nielsen, the complete overtures and tone poems of Dvorak and the complete orchestral works of Bedrich Smetana, all for the Brilliant Classics label. Also completed for Brilliant Classics, was a world premiere recording of Rachmaninoff’s Fifth Piano Concerto, a reconstruction of that composer’s Second Symphony based on the composer’s manuscripts. In addition to the 2009 USA Tour, Kuchar has conducted the orchestra in concert tours of Australia, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Switzerland.

During Maestro Kuchar’s tenure, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine became the most frequently recorded orchestra of the former Soviet Union. During the period 1994-2004, the orchestra recorded over 70 compact discs for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels, including the complete symphonies of Kalinnikov, Lyatoshynsky, Martinu and Prokofiev, as well as major works of Dvorak, Glazunov, Mozart, Shchedrin, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky and the symphonies and orchestral works of Ukraine’s leading contemporary symphonist, Yevhen Stankovych. The first of these recordings, devoted to Lyatoshynsky’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3, was awarded the ABC’s “Best International Recording of the Year” in 1994. Their recording of the complete works for violin and orchestra by Walter Piston for the Naxos label was hailed by Gramophone (January 2000) as a “Record of the Year” for 1999. Their complete symphonies of Prokofiev under Kuchar are regarded by many critics as the most accomplished recorded cycle available.

During the 1996-97 season, Kuchar and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine undertook a project devoted to the performance of the cycle of complete symphonies of Anton Bruckner, in their original versions. This historic project, commemorating the centenary of Bruckner’s death, was sponsored by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the 1997-98 season, they undertook a cycle of the complete symphonies of Franz Schubert, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

An enthusiastic frequent flyer and international traveler, Maestro Kuchar, during his tenure in the Ukraine, led the orchestra on eleven international tours, including Asia, Australia, Central Europe and the United Kingdom. During the 2003-04 season, he conducted the opening subscription weeks and a three-week European Tour with the Berliner Symphoniker (Berlin Symphony). In recent seasons, Maestro Kuchar has conducted nearly forty concerts with this distinguished orchestra. In February 2005, he conducted a three-week United States Tour with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.

Theodore Kuchar, who is also a violist, continues to devote several periods annually to one of his most serious passions, the performance of chamber music. Kuchar was the Artistic Director of The Australian Festival of Chamber Music from 1990 until 2006. Since 2005, he serves as the Artistic Director of the Nevada Chamber Music Festival. His chamber music colleagues have included James Buswell, Martin Chalifour, Sarah Chang, Lamar Crowson, Leila Josefowicz, Oleg Kagan, Dong-Suk Kang, Isabelle van Keulen, Oleh Krysa, Mark Lubotsky, Truls Mork, Paul Neubauer, Irina Schnittke, Torleif Thedeen and Thomas Zehetmair. In 1994, he participated with colleagues Oleh Krysa and Alexander Ivashkin in the world premiere of Penderecki’s String Trio in New York City. In July of 1999, he appeared as violist in two recordings for the Naxos label, in works by Alfred Schnittke (with Irina Schnittke and Mark Lubotsky) and Walter Piston. Kuchar’s recording of works by Walter Piston was awarded the Chamber Music America/WQXR “Record of the Year” for 2001.

Kuchar remains as strong an advocate of composers of the present day as he does of the great composers of the past. He has conducted works, in the presence of the composers such as George Crumb, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giya Kancheli, Benjamin Lees, Alfred Schnittke, Rodion Shchedrin and Yevhen Stankovych, among others. In May 2000, Mr. Kuchar conducted the world premiere, at the invitation of Yo-Yo Ma, of the Capriccio for Cello and Orchestra, with Mr. Ma as soloist, by American composer Lukas Foss. During recent seasons in Fresno, Maestro Kuchar has conducted works by John Adams and Christopher Rouse, as well as music by Fresno composers Jack Fortner and George Warren.

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Mihaela Ursuleasa opened 2008/2009 with her first performance at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival playing two concerts with the Festival Orchestra under Osmo Vänska and two recitals. Further highlights included a return to the Orchestre National de France conducted by Daniele Gatti, appearance with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Barcelona under Hans Graf and with the Basel Sinfonietta. In recital she returned to Vienna’s Konzerthaus, the Laieszhalle Hamburg and the chamber music series in Luxembourg. )..In March of 2009 she returned to the Pablo Casals Festival San Juan to perform the Rachmaninoff 4th Concerto with the Festival Orchestra with Max Valdes conducting and also to perform again in recital at the festival. In March 2009 she also returned to Canada to perform Beethoven 3 with Les Violons du Roy with Bernard Labadie conducting.

In August of 2009, she makes her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl performing the Tchaikowsky 1st Concerto and in October of 2009, the German label, EDEL (EDEL Kultur based in Hamburg) will released a solo CD featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms, Ravel and Ginastera. Aside from her recitals and chamber music concerts which will take her among other places to Munich, Zurich and Bad Kissingen, she will appear in the 9/10 season with such orchestras as the Orchester der Komische Oper and Carl St. Clair in Berlin, Camerata Salzburg and Bruno Weil in Vienna and Munich and Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia Palacio de la Ópera and Salvador Mas Conde.

Last season she made debut appearances with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris under Andris Nelsons and also with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg conducted by John Storgårds, where her playing was compared to that of Martha Argerich.

Mihaela Ursuleasa has appeared with the Concertgebouw under the direction of Kurt Sanderling, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, Weimar Staatskapelle. She made her Paris concerto debut with the Orchestre National de Paris and Sir Colin Davis and her Salzburg debut with the Mozarteum Orchestra. Her first tour of Germany was undertaken with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under Paavo Järvi. She has also toured with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra with Neeme Järvi.

Following her spectacular North American debut in 2005, Ursuleasa recently returned to perform recitals in San Francisco, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Philadelphia. She appeared with Vancouver Symphony under Hugh Wolff and with New Jersey Symphony under Neeme Järvi.

An ardent chamber musician, 2008/09 sees Mihaela Ursuleasa perform with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja at Gstaad’s Menuhin Festival, Vienna’s and Dortmund’s Konzerthaus. Joined by cellist Sol Gabetta she appears at the Schubertiade Hohenems and the duo will have a strong presence in Spain and Italy (Sevilla, Varese, Genua, Treviso, Messina, Palermo Ursuleasa has also appeared at the Salzburg and Lockenhaus Festivals, Lars Vogt’s festival ‘Spannungen’ in Heimbach and at the Marlboro Music Festival in the USA.

Mihaela Ursuleasa was born in Brasov, Romania in 1978. As a teenager she won second prize at the International Piano Competition in Senigallia. Upon the advice of Claudio Abbado, Mihaela studied with Prof. Heinz Medjimorec at the Vienna Conservatory. She reaped the fruits of this decision in 1995, when she won the Clara Haskil Competition aged 16. In 1999, she graduated with a diploma cum laude.

Please visit www.ursuleasa.com/

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