Biography
Notwithstanding his youth, Peter Valentovič has earned acclaim on opera stages and in concert halls worldwide, mainly as a conductor yet also as a pianist accompanying celebrated singers. In the autumn of 2016, he conducted Prague’s State Opera Orchestra and Chorus during their month-long tour of Japan, featuring Edita Gruberová in the title role of Bellini’s Norma, with whom he also garnered success at their joint solo gala concerts and song recitals.
Following his winning a number of international competitions, Peter Valentovič launched a career as a solo pianist. He studied conducting at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna with Leopold Hager and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris under the guidance of Zsolt Nagy. At the age of 21, he first conducted an opera performance – of Le nozze di Figaro, at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, where he would also conduct productions of Don Pasquale, Die Kluge and The Cunning Little Vixen. In 2003, he worked as a répétiteur at the Opéra Bastille and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, collaborating with Sir John Elliot Gardiner, and also served as a chorus master and conductor at the Cape Town Opera, where he extended his repertoire to include Nabucco, Cavalleria rusticana, Gianni Schicchi, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rusalka, Porgy and Bess, as well as numerous symphonic pieces and oratorios. He subsequently held the post of conductor at the Turkish State Opera in Istanbul. In 2004, he debuted with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he went on to work; the pieces he conducted included Verdi’s Requiem. He has regularly appeared as a guest at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava and the State Opera in Košice.
In September 2013, he made his debut at the Theater an der Wien, performing at Edita Gruberová’s gala concert with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. In the 2014/15 season, he collaborated with the soprano Pretty Yende at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, conducting the Prague Philharmonia. In the same season, he also appeared in Bratislava at the opening concert of the zero edition of the Eurokontext international theatre festival, where he conducted Ľubica Čekovská’s opera Dorian Gray. In the 2015/16 season, he explored and conducted Bellini’s Norma at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Lehár’s operetta The Land of Smiles at the Slovak National Theatre. In the spring of 2017, he made successful debuts at La Scala in Milan and the Wiener Staatsoper in recitals opposite Edita Gruberová.