Stermich-Valcrociata, Stermicz-Valcrociata, Piotr, actually Petar Strmić di Valcrociata, *31 August 1868 Zadar, †8 September 1935 Berlin, Croatian conductor. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory (1889), he performed in Malta and Italy. In 1895–96, he conducted performances of Italian opera in Moscow and St. Petersburg. From 1899, he was active in Poland: until 1908 as a conductor at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, in 1908–10 at the Lviv Opera, in 1922–29 as director of the Grand Theater in Poznań, in 1929–33 as director of the opera at the Grand Theater in Warsaw and in 1932– 33 music director of the Opera Studio of the National Opera Society. In 1911–22, he conducted performances at the German Theatre in Prague, the Volksoper in Vienna, in 1914/15 the Hofoper in Vienna, and the orchestra and choir of the Krakow Opera Society (1918). Stermich-Valcrociata’s achievement is the high artistic and repertoire level of the Grand Theatre in Poznań, where he staged 26 stage works, including: Ariadne auf Naxos by R. Strauss, Jenufa by L. Janáček, La Rondine by G. Puccini, L’amore dei tre re by I. Montemezzi and Konrad Wallenrod by W. Żeleński, Maria by H. Opieński, Legend of the Baltic Sea by F. Nowowiejski, Zamek na Czorsztynie and Wesele Krakowskie w Ojcowie by K. Kurpiński.
