Bio

John Cuk is a conductor, choral director, collaborative pianist, and organist whose career spans four decades of work across opera, musical theater, the concert stage, and the international podium. He has performed and conducted at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Marmorsaal and Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg, the Teatrul Național de Operă și Balet "Oleg Danovski" in Constanța, and the Kennedy Library in Boston. His international conducting engagements have taken him to Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Italy, Finland, Austria, and Argentina.

Guest conducting credits include the Sinfonietta Vidin/Concerto Antico, the Ridgefield Symphony, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Bacau, the Moldova Radio Symphony in Chișinău, and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatrul Național de Operă și Balet "Oleg Danovski" in Constanța, Romania, where he led Verdi's Requiem. He has conducted the National Chorale's Annual Messiah Sing-In at Avery Fisher Hall and led choral festivals across Westchester, Dutchess, Suffolk, and Western Connecticut.

A Finalist and Honorable Mention recipient in the American Prize in Conducting, Cuk has been praised for conducting that is "first rate" — combining "substantial body and excellent accompaniment" — and for choral work that delivers "elegant phrase shapes, tuning, balances" with "energy and spirit." In July 2023, he was appointed Music Director of the Danbury Concert Chorus.

Active in opera and musical theater, Cuk has held positions with Music in the Alps International Festival in Austria, Opera Estate in Rome, Dell'Arte Opera, Utopia Opera, and Immersion Repertory in New York, and the Buck Hill/Skytop Festival in Pennsylvania. He served as Director of Choirs at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York for 16 years, and his 40-year career in education included teaching at Scarsdale High School, Somers High School, and The Anglo-American School in New York.

He is active as a coach, accompanist, organist, and guest conductor, and serves as co-interim organist at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut. He holds degrees from Manhattanville College and the Manhattan School of Music, with postgraduate work at Westminster Choir College.

Endorsed artist, EAM Classical Artist Registry · Eva Artistic Management