Prague Proms festival

Steven Mercurio

CNSO Music Director

Maestro Steven Mercurio is an internationally acclaimed conductor and composer who is currently the Music Director of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Notably, Mercurio also served as Music Director of the Spoleto Festival for five years and Principal Conductor for the Opera Company of Philadelphia. A sought after collaborator for many award winning recordings, arrangements and film projects, he received his masters from the Juilliard School.  

For the stage, he has conducted more than sixty different operas in seven different languages. His engagements have taken him to many of the world's best loved opera houses including the Teatro dell'Opera, Roma; Teatro Bellini, Catania; Teatro Filarmonico, Verona; Teatro Reggio, Torino; Teatro Verdi, Trieste; Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Bonn Opera, Teatro Massimo, Palermo, English National Opera as well as the American opera companies of San Francisco, Washington, Philadelphia, Seattle, Detroit, Opera Pacific, Florida Grand, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Cincinnati. In addition to Maestro Mercurio's operatic repertoire, his symphonic appearances have spanned the globe appearing throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, with numerous Italian orchestras, Australia, the Far East and broadly throughout the United States. 

Maestro Mercurio has conducted countless operatic and symphonic television broadcasts including the internationally acclaimed, ”Christmas in Vienna" series highlighted by the best-selling “Three Tenors” (Carreras – Domingo – Pavarotti). Distinguished telecasts have also included Maestro Mercurio conducting the RAI's production of “Christmas from the Church of San Francesco in Assisi,” "La Boheme" from Cagliari, performances of Berlioz's "Requiem," Scriabin's "Prometheus," Mahler's "Second Symphony," an evening featuring the music of Chick Corea and Mozart and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 with his own Czech National Symphony Orchestra for ARTE in commemoration of the Beethoven 250th Anniversary celebration.

Maestro Mercurio recently released Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration and Metamorphosen,” on Audiophile Recordings with the Czech National Symphony. As a composer, Maestro Mercurio's compositions include songs, chamber works, and pieces for large orchestra. His large scale orchestral work, ”For Lost Loved Ones," was given its world premiere by Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. "Mercurial Overture," was given its world premiere by the Oslo Philharmonic in a live concert telecast honoring the Nobel Peace Prize winners, Médicins sans Frontières. Maestro Mercurio’s symphony, “A Grateful Tail,” is based on American playwright Eugene O’Neill’s “Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O’Neill” and premiered in Prague in 2013.

Maestro Mercurio is an acclaimed and sought after arranger and collaborator and has created arrangements for a wide array of performers across multiple genres including Sting and Chick Corea. Most recently, he served as arranger, conductor and producer for Andrea Bocelli’s best-selling recording “Believe.” In 2022, he produced, arranged and conducted superstar crossover cellist HAUSER’s new recording for Sony Masterworks, “The Player.”