Theodore Kuchar

Theodore Kuchar was born in 1960. His musical career began on the violin, and later the viola. He attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and served as principal violist of leading orchestras of Cleveland and Helsinki. A dedicated chamber music player, he has appeared both as soloist and chamber musician all around the world.
Kuchar was appointed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in 1994, in a contract spanning through the beginning of 2000; upon completion of that agreement, he was awarded the title of Conductor Laureate for Life. His formal association with the orchestra began in 1992, when Mr. Kuchar was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, the name under which the orchestra was known from its founding in 1937 until its official change of status in mid-1994.

For the past twelve years, since 1990, he has served as Artistic Director of The Australian Festival of Chamber Music, an annual event regarded as that country"s leading music festival. In August, 1996 he commenced duties as Music Director and Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra while in August, 2001 he was appointed Music Director of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra. During the past several seasons, guest conducting engagements have taken him to major musical centers including Amsterdam, Chicago, Helsinki, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Prague and Sydney. Soloists with whom Kuchar has collaborated through the 2002 season include James Galway, Jessye Norman, Lynn Harrell, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Sarah Chang and Mstislav Rostropovich and Frederica von Stade, among others.

In 1980 Mr. Kuchar was awarded the Paul Fromm Fellowship from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to undertake advanced study and performance at Tanglewood, where he worked with Leonard Bernstein, Colin Davis, Seiji Ozawa and Andre Previn, and in Cleveland where he worked under the guidance of Lorin Maazel. Subsequently, he appeared as a guest conductor with the leading symphony orchestras of Brisbane, Cape Town, Helsinki, Perth, Prague, and Tallinn, among many others. Soon after his Australian debut in 1987, Mr. Kuchar was appointed Music Director of the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra in Brisbane, whilst also serving as Music Director of the West Australian Ballet in Perth until 1993. During his time in Brisbane Kuchar"s activities ranged from initiating a three year project devoted to performing the complete symphonies of Mozart to conducting Australian premieres of works by Prokofiev, Schnittke and Shostakovich. In 1989, he was awarded a bronze medal by the Finnish Government in recognition of his work in performing and promoting that country"s music, both in Finland and abroad.

During the 2001 season, recording projects have included collaborations with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra producing several of the very first five-channel/surround sound orchestral recordings for the Bose Corporation and six compact discs for the Naxos label, with the NSO of Ukraine, devoted to works by Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky and Khachaturian. Mr. Kuchar has led two international tours with the NSO of Ukraine, of the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, while having guest conducted the major orchestras of Amsterdam, London, Seoul and Costa Rica.

Next to Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and Neeme Järvi, Kuchar has been the most prolific modern conductor of Prokofiev"s works. He has recorded all of Prokofiev"s symphonies and most of his other major works with the National Symphony Orchestra on the Naxos label. The series has received critical attention for its consistent quality. Many critics have ranked Kuchar"s recordings above more well-known stalwarts including Andre Previn, Seiji Ozawa, and Herbert Von Karajan.

In total over the last eight years, Kuchar and the National Symphony of Ukraine have recorded over 60 compact discs on the Naxo and Marco Polo labels, including the complete symphonies of Kalinnikov, Lyatoshynsky, and Martinu as well Prokofiev. Their recording of Lyatoshynsky"s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3, was awarded the Australian Broadcast Corporation"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.

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