Artist database

Jazz Pianist Kalman Olah, a native of Hungary, has gained international reputation as an artist who masterfully combines the elements of jazz, folk and contemporary classical music. Kalman, a recipient of numerous awards, has appeared with artists including Lee Konitz, Randy Brecker, Pat Metheny, Steve Grossman, Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Tommy Campbell, Ron McClure, Stefano Di Battista, Jay Leonhart, Daniel Humair, Andrej Ceccarelli, Paolo Fresu, Kenny Wheeler, to name a few.

In 1990, Kalman founded Trio Midnight, an innovative jazz trio that helped him to earn recognition and made him a regular at such prestigious events as the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, the Marciac Jazz Festival in France, the Getxo Jazz Festival in Spain and the Ciney Jazz Nights in Belgium. Kalman's versatility as a performer is demonstrated by his passion to expand the musical boundaries and his ever-lasting quest for new forms of self-expression: he has recorded ten albums in different - sometimes unconventional -formations (Jazz Trio with Strings, Solo with Chamber Orchestra, Piano-D.bass duo, Solo, etc.) and made special appearances on 12 other recordings.

Kalman Olah was born in 1970 in Budapest, Hungary. He completed his musical studies at the Jazz Faculty of the Béla Bartók Conservatory. His unique voice gained him an early recognition and he started to play in different formations throughout his student years.

Kalman has won numerous awards including the Jury Prize at the Leverkusen International Jazz Competition in 1990, the Grand Prize at the Kalis International Jazz Pianist Competition in Poland (1991) and the eMerRton Prize "Best Soloist of the Year" - Hungarian Radio (1995). He was voted "Best Soloist" at the Hoeilaart Jazz Competition and was a Prize Winner at the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida in1995. In 2001, he received the prestigious "Hungarian Jazz Prize" from Gramofon Magazine, a leading Jazz and Classical Music publication in Hungary.

In 2000, Kalman became a member of the Jazz Faculty of the Liszt Music Academy of Budapest.

As a composer, Kalman has played and recorded his originals ever since his first album. His compositions fuse jazz and contemporary classical music with Hungarian folk. Kalman's critically acclaimed Concerto for Jazz Orchestra, was performed in February 2001 at the Hungarian Radio, with the collaboration of the Budapest Jazz Orchestra. Concerto reflects Olah's devotion to contemporary music, and it was noted as "a truly original composition", and a "unique and fresh re-interpretation of a melodic and harmonic world that was created by Bartók and Stravinsky".

In 2001, Kalman collaborated with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra for the Korean label Good International Co. on a special "cross-over" project: a rendition of Bach's Goldberg Variations with Olah's improvisations over Bach's original themes. His most recent trio record, 'Contrasts and Parallels' was published by the Japanese label, MA Recordings in 2003.

In 2006 he was awarded the Liszt Prize, and the Composers Award of the Thelonius Monk Jazz Institute in Washington with his song called Always - In memoriam Dezső Ablakos-Lakatos. In 2019 he received the Ferenc Erkel Prize.

Current performances of Kálmán Oláh
Koncertkalendárium (www.muzsikalendarium.hu)