Theodore Kuchar is one of the most prolifically recorded conductors of the past decade, appearing on over 70 compact discs on the Naxos and Marco Polo labels. He has served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine since 1992, in a contract spanning through 2000; upon completion of that agreement, he was awarded the title of Conductor Laureate for Life. In the USA , he presently serves as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2001), Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra (since 1996) and Reno Chamber Orchestra (since 2003). For the past fourteen years, he has served as Artistic Director of The Australian Festival of Chamber Music, an annual event regarded internationally as the pre-eminent chamber music festival of the southern hemisphere. During the past several seasons, guest conducting engagements have taken him to major musical centers including Amsterdam , Chicago , Helsinki , Hong Kong, London , Madrid , Prague , Seoul , and Sydney . Soloists with whom Kuchar has collaborated through the 2004 season include Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Mstislav Rostropovich, James Galway, Sarah Chang, Lynn Harrell, Jessye Norman and Frederica von Stade.

During the 2003-04 season, he has conducted the opening subscription concerts and, subsequently, a three week United Kingdom Tour with the Berliner Symphoniker; he is to conduct a three week tour of the United States in February, 2005 with this distinguished ensemble. Additional engagements have included a ten day tour of The Netherlands with the Janacek Philharmonic, a seven day tour with the Nederlander Symphoniker throughout Holland and engagements in Amsterdam (The Concertgebouw), Berlin , Bucharest , Kiev , palermo , Prague , Rome and Rotterdam .

Under Mr. Kuchar's direction, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine has today become the most frequently recorded orchestra of the former Soviet Union . During the past ten years, the orchestra has recorded the complete symphonies of Kalinnikov, Lyatoshynsky, Martinu and Prokofiev, as well as major works of Dvorak, Glazunov, Roy Harris, 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. His recent recording of Mussorgsky's Picture at an Exhibition was reviewed in The 2004 Penguin Guide to Classical Compact Discs as the first choice of available recordings of this work, ahead of recordings by Gergiev/Vienna Philharmonic and Reiner/Chicago Symphony.On Classical CD.Net, the review of his recent recording of Prokofiev's Second Symphony stated "On rare occasions this reviewer hears a recording whose performance and sonic properties are of such an extraordinary quality as to leave him astonished, drained, in a state mere words cannot describe ... This Naxos disc is by far the most compelling rendition of the Second Symphony you're likely to find for a long time to come. Jarvi/Chandos, Ozawa/DG, Weller/London and Rostropovich/Erato all have much to offer in this work, but each is a clear second to this Kuchar recording."

Kuchar finished his studies at The Cleveland Institute of Music in 1982 as a student of Robert Vernon, Principal Violist of The Cleveland Orchestra. In 1980, he was awarded the Paul Fromm Fellowship from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to undertake advanced study and performance at Tanglewood; he was reinvited the following summer. He continues to devote several periods annually to one of his most serious passions, the performance of chamber music. His colleagues during the past few seasons have included Boris Berman, James Buswell, Sarah Chang, Oleg Kagan, Dong-Suk Kang, Isabelle van Keulen, Oleh Krysa, Mark Lubotsky, Truls Mork, Irina Schnittke and Torleif Thedeen.