Štefan Bučko graduated from the Faculty of Drama of the Academy of Performing Arts and since then he has been a member of the Drama Company of the Slovak National Theatre, heading it in 2008–2010. Under his management the number of spectators rose, a systematic development of original creation (8 new works) took place and premieres were held of never before performed world titles. One of the top performances was certainly Goethe’s Faust in a new translation by M. Richter.
In 1981 Bučko won the Czecho-Slovak competition in artistic narration in Poděbrady and came second at the international competition in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad). With his narrating art he has travelled not only Slovakia, but also Czech Republic, Poland, visited Munich, and especially Montreal, together with his musician wife Adriena Bartošová and her band. He participated in the premiere of the oratorio Cirillo-Metodiada by Egon Krák (after J. Hollý’s epos) with Slovak Philharmonic Choir and Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra; the series of 8 performances culminated in a successful presentation in Paris. Similarly, the premiere of melodrama Apolloopera by Marek Piaček and Krák’s melodrama Pilgrims, performed also in Paris and Berlin, met with a great response.
Together with the internationally acclaimed organist Zuzana Ferjenčíková he performed the work Le Chemin de la Croix on words by Paul Claudel and music by Marcel Dupré with a favourable response from the audience and critics. With the soprano Nao Higano and Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina he presented a music-poetic work Gitanjali Songs by J. A. Carpenter and R. Thákur. For the Slovak Radio he recorded Dante’s Divine Comedy (2016) and Milton’s Paradise Lost (2024). He is a regular visitor of the international symposium Ora et ars in Skalka pri Trenčíne and the international poetic-music festival Capalest in Banská Štiavnica.
In 2008 he received the Fra Angelico Prize and in 2013 in Poděbrady he was awarded the Crystal Rose, the highest Czech and Slovak award, for his lifelong masterful performance and dissemination of poetry. His collection of poems Tušené ostáva v tieni (The Suspected Remains in the Shadow, 2011, 2013) was released in the Petrus publishing house. A CD with narration of the author himself is included in the book, featuring music by Adriena Bartošová. Bučko has been active as a teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts as an associate professor lecturing on Theory of Stage Speech and Artistic Narration.