CIM Alumnus Conducts in Marathon Tour of National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine

Cleveland Institute of Music alumnus and frequent CIM guest conductor Theodore Kuchar (BM ’82, Vernon) has just completed a North American concert tour with the Grammy-nominated National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine where he conducted 28 of the 44 concerts on the circuit. At last week’s performance in Los Angeles, Kuchar was joined by fellow CIM alumnus Alex Slobodyanik (piano, ’92-’93), winner of the Young Concert Artists International, who performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the orchestra under Kuchar’s baton. Kuchar was at CIM this fall, where he led the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra in its October 19 concert in Kulas Hall, before embarking on this ambitious tour this spring.

The marathon of concerts throughout North America concluded on Sunday with its final performance in Berkeley, California, putting a cap on what Kuchar describes as “the largest-scale cultural event coming from Ukraine in our time.”

A graduate of CIM in 1982, Kuchar has appeared on more than 100 albums on the Naxos, Marco Polo and Brilliant Classics labels and served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the NSO of Ukraine from 1994-2004. Today he holds the lifetime designation as Conductor Laureate.