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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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A multi-faceted musician of consummate virtuosity, Zuill Bailey’s rare combination of compelling artistry, technical finesse, and engaging personality has secured his place as one of the most sought-after cellists today.

This summer Mr. Bailey joins the Nashville Symphony for Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with Danail Rachev and performs at Alaska’s Sikta Music Festival, where he was recently appointed Music Director Designate. He plays a recital of the Bach Cello Suites at Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, appears at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and returns to Maverick Concerts. He is joined at Ravinia by frequent recital partner, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, for an all-Beethoven program, celebrating the August 25 release of their two-disc recording of the complete Beethoven Sonatas on Telarc International.

In the 2009/10 season, Mr. Bailey plays recitals at Ithaca College and at Caramoor with pianist Awadagin Pratt, and at the Washington Performing Arts Society and the Artist Series at Florida State University with pianist Orion Weiss. Other recitals include dates in California, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Utah. He performs the Brahms Double, Dvorak, Elgar, and Shostakovich concerti and Strauss’ Don Quixote with the symphonies of Asheville, Napa Valley, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Wheeling, and the National Philharmonic at Strathmore, among others. International dates include performances of the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Israel Philharmonic and the Perlman/Schmidt/Bailey trio (pianist Navah Perlman and violinist Giora Schmidt).

Mr. Bailey opened the 2008/09 season with Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 led by Daniel Meyer at Chautauqua, a recital at Maverick Concerts, and season openers with the Arkansas and Fort Collins Symphonies, playing the Dvorak concerto. He appeared with the South Carolina Philharmonic, the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Anchorage, Chattanooga, Erie, Hudson Valley, Portland (ME), Roanoke, Santa Barbara, Shreveport, et. al. Bailey played recitals at the Howland Cultural Center, at Duke Performances, Pro Musica of Joplin, at Rockefeller University, and appeared with Perlman/Schmidt/Bailey trio at the Kennedy Center, the St. Croix Concert Series, the University of Nebraska’s Lied Center and elsewhere. An exclusive Telarc International recording artist, Bailey’s first disc with the label, featuring Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, Pezzo Capriccioso, and Nocturne, was released to critical and popular acclaim in January 2009.

In recent seasons, Zuill Bailey presented concerts at the Kennedy Center, the National Gallery, at La Jolla Music Society, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St. Y., and Carnegie Hall, and played the complete Beethoven Sonatas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Simone Dinnerstein. As a concerto soloist, Mr. Bailey has performed with the Dallas, San Francisco, Minnesota, Toronto, Buffalo, Edmonton, Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Louisville, Milwaukee, North Carolina, Phoenix, and Utah orchestras, among others. He has played concerts abroad in France, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico; at the Manchester International Cello Festival; and with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Bailey made his Carnegie Hall debut with the U.S. premiere of Miklos Theodorakis’ Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Zuill Bailey regularly performs with the Perlman/Schmidt/Bailey trio, and with pianists Awadagin Pratt and Simone Dinnerstein. Mr. Bailey has appeared in concert with such renowned musicians as Lynn Harrell, the Juilliard String Quartet, Itzhak Perlman and Janos Starker. Recent festival appearances include returns to the Santa Fe and Montreal Chamber Music festivals, the Bard Music Festival, Maverick Concerts, and performances at the Ravinia, Vail Valley, Chautauqua and Wintergreen festivals.

Mr. Bailey’s television appearances include a nationally broadcast recital for NHK-TV in Japan; a performance of the Beethoven Triple Concerto broadcast live nationally from Mexico City; a televised appearance in Havana with the National Orchestra of Cuba in which he gave the Cuban premiere of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2; a recurring role on on HBO’s hit series Oz; and an extended interview/recital on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts. Among Mr. Bailey’s appearances on radio are his performances on American Public Media’s "Performance Today" and "Saint Paul Sunday", Minnesota Public Radio’s “New Classical Tracks with Julie Amacher”, BBC's "In Tune," XM Radio's "Live from Studio II," Sirius Satellite Radio, the KDFC Concert Series and RTHK Radio Hong Kong.

In addition to the upcoming complete Beethoven Sonatas and the “Russian Masterpieces” disc, Telarc will release Zuill Bailey’s recording of the complete Bach Suites for Solo Cello in 2010. Other albums include a live recording of the Saint-Saëns Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 for Delos (DE 3378); 2003’s eponymous debut recital disk (DE 3326); the Korngold Cello Concerto with Caspar Richter and the Bruckner Orchester Linz for ASV (DCA 1146); and 2004’s Janos Starker Celebration, a musical tribute to the legendary cellist, featuring Bailey and Starker in the Cello Quintets of Boccherini and Schubert.

A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory and The Juilliard School, Mr. Bailey’s principal teachers were Loran Stephenson, Stephen Kates and Joel Krosnick. He performs on a 1693 Matteo Goffriller cello, formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet. In addition to his extensive touring engagements, Mr. Bailey serves as Professor of Cello at the University of Texas-El Paso, and as the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro-Musica.

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