Artist database

1 March 1933 Budapest - 23 October 2023

He studied composing at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music as pupil of János Viski and Ferenc Szabó between 1950 and 1958.

From 1957 to 1960 he worked as music teacher assistant at the Theater and Film Academy, and between 1966 and 1984 he was music consultant at the State Puppet Theater. In 1961 he won a prize with his composition Concerto per archi at the composers' contest in Ludwigshafen. Since 1973 he’s been lecturer, reader, and then university professor at the chamber music department of the Music Academy. Between 1970 and 1990 he was member and president of the jury of various international music contests (for horn, trumpet, brass wind chamber music, oboe, composing and choir). As guest performer he held lectures at following universities: University of Colorado (1973), CNM Mexico City (1985, 1987) and New Mexico State University (1988).

From 1978 to 1990 he was secretary general of the Association of Hungarian Musicians. Between 1984 and 1988 he was member of the Executive Board of the New Music International Association (ISCM). In 1958 he was the first who wrote about the importance of the setting-up of an electronic music studio. Since 1974 he’s been constantly taking part in the work of the HEAR Studio with recorded and live electronic music compositions. The oeuvre of the artist, who is equally active as teacher and as composer, is versatile and varied: it ranges from the opera, the symphonic and chamber music all the way to the electro-acoustic music. His style can be characterized by strong affinity towards the theater, his dramaturgic sense shows even in his most abstract instrumental pieces.

As admission of his activity as composer he was awarded with the Erkel Prize (1968, 1975), the title Merited Artist (1985), the Bartók-Pásztory Award (1994), the Artisjus Prize (2005) and the Middle Cross of Merit of Order of the Hungarian Republic (2009).

He died at the age of 90 on the 23rd of October, 2023.