Artist database

2 January 1944 Székelyudvarhely [today: Odorheiu Secuiesc, Romania] - 2024. március 24.

Peter Eötvös is one of the best known interpreters of 20th century music. He was born in 1944 in Transsylvania, received diplomas from Budapest Academy of Music (composition) and Hochschule für Musik in Cologne (conducting). Between 1968 and 1976 he played regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble. From 1971 to 1979 he collaborated with the electronic music studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne.

In 1978, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he conducted the inaugural concert of IRCAM in Paris, and was subsequently named musical director of the Ensemble InterContemporain, a post he held until 1991. Since his Proms debut in 1980 he made regular appearances in London. During 1985-1988 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed First Guest Conductor at the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 1992-1995, First Guest Conductor at National Philharmonic Orchestra (Budapest) in 1998-2001, Chief Conductor of the Radio Chamber Orchestra of Hilversum in 1994-2005, First Guest conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2003-2005 and Principal Guest Conductor, Modern and Contemporary Repertoire at Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2007. From 2009 he was First Guest Conductor at Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna.

Other orchestras he worked with include the most important Radio Orchestras in Europe, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonia, Wiener Philharmoniker, Orchestre de Paris, Cleveland Orchestra, NHK Orchestra Tokyo, Los Angeles Philharmonic and New Japan Symphony Orchestra. He also worked in opera houses including La Scala Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and La Monnaie, Brussels, Festival Opera Glyndebourne, Theatre du Chatelet Paris, with directors including Luca Ronconi, Robert Altman, Klaus-Michael Grüber, Robert Wilson, Nikolaus Lehnhof, Ushio Amagatsu.

In 1991 he founded the International Eötvös Institute and Foundation, in 2004 the Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation in Budapest for young conductors and composers. During 1992-98 he was professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, and from 1998 to 2001 at Cologne's Hochschule für Musik. He returned to his post at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe between 2002-2007. He regularly conducted master courses and seminars all over the world, e.g. Edekoben, Luzern, Basel, Luxemburg, Szombathely, Madrid etc.

His many compositions (e.g. Atlantis, zeroPoints, Shadows, Levitation, CAP-KO, SEVEN) and operas (Three sisters, Le Balcon, Angels in America, Love and Other Demons, Die Tragödie des Teufels) are regularly performed throughout the world.

Three Sisters was awarded France´s Prix Claude-Rostand, Grand Prix de la Critique (1997/98) and Victoires de la Musique Classique et du Jazz (1999) and its CD won Grand Prix of Academie Charles Cros (1999), Diapason d´or de l´année 2000" in France, ECHO Preis 2000" in Germany and "Prix Caecilia" in Belgium (2000). In 2003 the film of his opera" Le Balcon" won the Grand Prix Golden Prague. His CD Bartók Bluebeard´s Castle was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004. His violin concerto Seven was awarded "Prix de Composition Musicale" at Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco in 2008. His work Valuska, based on the novel by László Krasznahorkai, was awarded the Artisjus Prize (posthumous) in May 2024.

His works have been recorded by BIS AG, BMC, DGG, ECM, Kairos, col legno, Erato, Hungaroton and his music is published by Editio Musica (Budapest), Ricordi (Munich), Salabert (Paris), Schott Music (Mainz).

Peter Eötvös was a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, Széchenyi Academy of Art in Budapest and Sächsische Akademie der Künste in Dresden, Royal Swedish Academy of Music.


Prizes:

1988 Officier de l´Ordre des l´Arts et des Lettres (by the French Cultural Minister)
1997 Bartók Prize
2000 Christoph und Stephan Kaske Prize
2001 Gundel-Prize (for theatre work As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams)
2001 Hungarian Classical Award of the Hungarian magazine Gramofon
2002 Kossuth Prize
2002 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award
2002 Prize SACD Palmarčs (in cathegory "Prix Musique")
2003 Commandeur l´Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (by the French Cultural Minister)
2003 Freeman of Budapest
2004 Cannes Classical Award for "Living Composer"
2004 Pro Europa Prize
2006 Im memoriam Béla Bartók Prize
2006 Hungarian Arts Prize
2006 Grand Prix de la PMI - Prix Antoine Livio (Association Presse Musicale Internationale)
2007 Frankfurter Musikpreis
2011 Golden Lion Award for Lifetime achievement (55th International Contemporary Music Festival Biennale la Venezia 2011)
2015 Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary
2016 Le Grand Prix de la Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca - Composition musicale (Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris)
2017 Artisjus Prize
2018 Goethe Medal
2024 Kossuth Grand Prize
2024 Artisjus Prize (posthumus)

see also: Eötvös Péter - conductor