Theodore Kuchar

Theodore Kuchar (born May 31, 1963) is a Ukrainian American conductor of classical music and a violist.

Kuchar was born in 1963 in New York City. He started to learn to play the violin at ten years of age, later switching to viola. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where his viola instructor was Robert Vernon, in 1982.

In 1980, he was awarded a Paul Fromm Fellowship from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to study at Tanglewood Music Center. He was the principal violist of orchestras in Cleveland, Helsinki, and Cape Town.

In 1987 he became music director of the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra in Australia, a post that he held until 1993. Between 1990 and 2006, he served as the first Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville; a Theodore Kuchar Scholarship for Excellence in Music was established there after his departure. He was also Music Director of the West Australian Ballet in Perth until 1993.

In 1992 Kuchar was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, which changed its name to National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in 1994. In that year he became Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestra. After his contract with the Orchestra ended in 2000, he was awarded the title of Conductor Laureate for Life. Under Kuchar's direction, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine became the most frequently recorded orchestra of the former Soviet Union, with over 60 compact discs under Naxos Records and its Marco Polo label. Theodore Kuchar's complete discography is numbered over 100 with over 90 records under Naxos Records.

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