Artist database

28th December, 1928, Budapest - 30th November, 2016, Budapest

Composer awarded with the Kossuth Prize, also professor emeritus of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy. Former reader of the Hungarian Radio.

He started his music studies with the piano teacher Margit Varró. One year later he was pupil of György Kámán in the Fodor Music School until 1938. In 1949 he was accepted to the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy, where he became pupil of János Viski and graduated in 1957. For two years his master was László Somogyi. Through these years he had composed the Trio Serenade and the Rapsody for violin and piano, while in 1955 he composed his String Trio. In 1957 he became more interested in vocal music while he was conductor, répétiteur and director of the coir at the Szeged Opera House. His Concertino was presented in 1960 and it became an outstanding music piece in the history of Hungarian concertos of the ‘50s.

Between 1960 and 1966 he worked as music director of the State Puppet Theater and from 1966 to 1968 he was art director of the Art Ensemble of the Hungarian People’s Army. In the ‘70s he composed the oratorio Orogenesis, and then the cantata Pro Libertate. This was followed by the cantata Scenes (1978-1981), which was composed on excerpts from Thomas Mann’s novel, Joseph and his brothers. In 1972 he became teacher of music theory at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy. From 1976 to 1992 he worked here as head of department and university teacher. Two of his operas were requests of the Hungarian Television. In 1972 he composed a one-act play, The magic chair, then an opera based on Sartre’s La putain respecteuse in 1978. Both compositions were presented on stage in Görlitz and Paris.

As commission of the Festival d’Art Sacre Paris he composed the Via crucis that was presented 1989 in the cathedral Eglise de la Trinité. The first performance of his Stabat Mater also took place in Paris, at the Forum des Orgue Festival. From the oeuvre of Lendvay emerge his symphonic works, like the ten concertos, his chamber music and instrumental solo works. His compositions are frequently played in the United States, as well as in the concert halls of Europe and Asia. The Pezzo Concertato per Violoncello ed Orchestra (it is his cello concerto) won a prize at the International Composing Contest in Triest. The recording of the opera La putain respecteuse was awarded with the Paris Grand Prix International du Disque Lyrique in 1979.

As admission to his achievements as composer, Kamilló Lendvay received the Erkel Prize (1962, 1964, 1978), the title Merited Artist (1981), the Bartók-Pásztory Award (1989, 2005), the title Excellent Artist (1996), the Silver Pen Award and the Kossuth Prize (1998), and recently the Artisjus Music Award as well.