UE composers from Hungary

Described as an unicum in the compositional landscape of our times (Il Corriere Musicale) Alessio Elia has gained international recognition thanks to his Polysystemism, the simultaneous use of different tuning systems, discussed in many conferences and lectures, among them the one at "Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine" of the Cité de la Musique in Paris. Articles and essays on Polysystemism have been published by von Bockel Verlag, l'Université de Strasbourg, the Hungarian Academy of Arts and the University of Prague, as well as the subject of a master thesis degree at the Academy of Music of the Italian Switzerland in Lugano.

Elia received commissions most importantly from I Solisti del Teatro alla Scala di Milano (Octet), piece released in CD by Warner Classics in 2018, under the baton of Andrea Vitello; Radio Bartók (orchestral piece Trasparenze); Alter Ego ensemble (Altered memories) for a project including commissions to Eötvös, Hosokawa, Ablinger, L. Ligeti and Howard Skempton; Impronta ensemble conducted by Andreas Luca Beraldo and Oggimusica Festival in Lugano (Traces from Nowhere); UMZE - the historical ensemble founded by Bartók (Ekpyrotic Suicide); Wiener Collage (Outskirts of matter); Antal Dorati Conducting Competition (Distimement for large orchestra) as a complusory piece for the final round of the conducting contest; Stuttgart Kammerchor and Frieder Bernius (Incantesimi di Merseburg).

His music has been performed in significant concert halls and festivals worldwide (Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome; Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest; Menuhin Festival in Oslo; Festival Erkel-Mahler in Budapest; Accademia Filarmonica Romana; BMC - Budapest Music Center; Bartók Hall of Palace of Arts – The National Auditorium in Budapest; Levinsalen and Lindemansalen in Oslo; Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna; Kongresshaus Stadthalle Heidelberg; Mannheimer Kunstverein; LAC - Lugano Arte e Cultura Auditorium; National Hungarian Radio Studios; Forum Neue Musik - Palais Prinz Carl in Heidelberg; Auditorium del Parco by Renzo Piano in L'Aquila; Oggimusica Festival in Lugano; Contemporary Arts Festival Budapest; Yamaha Concert Hall Wien, etc.).

Ten portrait concerts of his music have been organized in Budapest, Oslo, Mannheim and Rome.

On May 28, 2023, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of György Ligeti, Elia's book The "Hamburgisches Konzert" by György Ligeti has been released, the most exhaustive and complete analysis on this work.

Published by Edition Impronta, the book includes the complete revision of the score and the correction of the numerous errors (over 300) present in the printed score, including instrumental parts, and in the manuscript.

Two unpublished movements of the Concerto, found by Alessio Elia at the Sacher Foundation (Ligeti Collection), together with all the preparatory sketches are published for the first time in the book.

Since 2024 he is visiting professor in composition at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim.

In December 2024, Brilliant Classics released a monographic CD featuring his orchestral and vocal works.

STUDIES

Trained internationally he studied composition in Italy, Hungary and Germany, graduating at the S. Cecilia Academy of Music in Rome under the guidance of Giovanni Piazza. He completed postgraduate courses in Italy at the National Academy of Music S. Cecilia in Rome and at the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, and abroad at the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt with Brian Ferneyhough, Toshio Hosokawa, and Georg Friedrich Haas, as well as at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Zoltán Jeney.

Consultations with Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen also had a significant role in the process of his professional development.

He obtained the post-master’s degree in Composition at the Hochschule für Musik Mannheim, studying with Sidney Corbett, a former student of György Ligeti.

Elia earned his PhD cum laude at the University of Rome Tor Vergata with a dissertation about the Hamburgisches Konzert by Ligeti (first comprehensive monograph on this topic).

Ármin Cservenák (born 14 October 1995 in Gyula - ) is a Hungarian composer and conductor. After finishing studies in Budapest in the fields of music theory, composition, conducting, and sound engineering, he continued his academic studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz under the supervision of Beat Furrer and Bernhard Lang. He additionally took lessons in microtonal composition, instrumentation, and analysis from Georg Friedrich Haas.

He participated in numerous masterclasses and received individual lessons from Péter Eötvös, Magnus Lindberg, Brian Ferneyhough, Alberto Posadas, Clemens Gadenstätter, Franck Bedrossian among others.

The Graz Opera premiered his chamber opera "SOLUS" in 2022, directed by Christoph Zauner. The opera received outstanding positive reviews in international magazines and musical forums. In 2022 he was awarded the Musikförderungspreis der Stadt Graz. He has won several prizes in prestigious competitions. His most recent and most distinguished awards are the 3rd Prize and the Audience Prize of the 76e Concours de Genève Composition Competition 2022.

His compositions were performed by Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Ensemble Musikfabrik, IEMA Ensemble, UMZE Chamber Ensemble, Tamás Pálfalvi, Schallfeld Ensemble among others.

Bence Hartl was born in Budapest. At the age of seven he started to learn violin and as a teenager he turned to the classical guitar. After high school he studied philosophy and aesthetics at Eötvös Loránd University - Faculty of Humanities. He wrote his Bachelor-degree thesis about Bertrand Russell's denotation-theory. He studied as a guitarist at Szeged University and later at Vienna Konservatorium. He got degrees as philologist, guitarist, teacher and conductor. Over the years his most important teachers were: Gábor Brezovcsik (guitar), Andrea Bozóki (guitar), Ede Roth (guitar) and Iván Madarász (music theory and composition).

He was a guitarist in several chamber music formations. As a founder and leader of S.W.A.T. Guitar Ensemble (HU) he staged contemporary and rare guitar quartets and played many concerts with his team at renowned concert locations. He played together with other instrumentalists as well and took part in contemporary and mixed media performances. Currently he plays in the Clarinet-Guitar Project, in the Cluster Project and occasionally with other formations.

Bence Hartl took part in several mixed media projects as a composer, guitarist or performing artist. He composed music for theater and theatrical performance, creates regurally paraphrases of classical pieces, composes and plays music for videoinstallations. His long-time collaborator in this area is Jenő Lévay acclaimed visual artist, but he worked together with others as well, such as modern dancer and experimental artist Tomaas Yilssom, director of film and theater Arpad Sopsits and others.

His pieces were performed in the USA, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Greece, Ukraine and Russia by such performers as the soloist of New Music Studio Moscow, virtuoso violinists (Édua Zádory, Gabriella Márffy, Epameinondas Tzivenis) and guitarist (Dora Cserenyec, Marcell Nickmann, Fabio Adour), Tamas Palfalvi (trumpet), the Somogyi String Quartet, Rupert Bergmann (baritone) and others. In 2019 he got the 2nd Prize at the Fifth Edison Denisov Young Composer’s International Competiton, in 2020 he was a finalist at the 1st Chalki International Composition Competition and in 2021 he won the 1st prize at the International Composition Competition of the Miami GuitART Festival.

Alongside his activities he teaches classical guitar, chamber music and music theory. Since 2018 he lives, works and creates in Germany.

Judit VARGA (born 12 January 1979 in Győr – ) is an Erkel Ferenc Prize and Béla Bartók - Ditta Pásztory Award winner composer, pianist and university lecturer.

She is known for contemporary classical music compositions as well as for composing for motion pictures and theatre pieces. Since 2013 she has been teaching composition and applied and film music at the Franz Liszt Music University in Budapest. From October 2019 she is Professor of Media Composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Judit Varga works with orchestras and ensembles from all over the world, including Ensemble Modern, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, Riot Ensemble London.

The Hungarian State Opera performed her opera Szerelem (Love) in 2016/17. The opera received outstanding positive reviews in international professional magazines.

In 2014 Judit Varga received the “Best Music” award from the Austrian Film Academy for her soundtrack to the cinema production “Deine Schönheit ist nichts Wert”.

The two primary platforms of her studies and work are Vienna and Budapest.

Born in 1975 in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Levente Gyöngyösi studied at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest under the tutelage of György Orbán.

His first opera, The Stork Caliph, was premiered by the Hungarian State Opera House in 2005. 

He has composed several choral works for renowned Hungarian and international choirs such as Pro Musica Girls' Choir (Hungary), Stellenbosch University Choir (South Africa) and The King's Singers (UK). His choral works are very popular in Japan and the USA, but also in South Africa and the Philippines.

In addition to his choral works, he has composed 4 symphonies (Symphony No. 3 commissioned and performed by the Budapest Festival Orchestra), 4 masses, Piano Concerto, Flute Concerto, Piccolo Concerto, St. Luke Passion and Christmas Oratorio. His most important work, the opera-musical The Master and Margarita, after novel of M. A. Bulgakov, was premiered by the Hungarian State Opera House in 2021. 

In 2023, the Hungarian State awarded him the title of Merited Artist of the Republic of Hungary.

Lukács Márton Örs is a pianist, composer and music producer from Miercurea Ciuc, Romania, currently living in Budapest, Hungary.

He started learning the piano at age 5, and had a classical music education from 2007 to 2019 at the Nagy István High School of Arts, learning piano and cello. Becoming interested also in jazz and modern music production, he attended lessons and masterclasses with renowned teachers. In 2020, he was admitted to the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, studying jazz composition, graduating in 2023.

He composes for piano and various instrumentations with a unique, contemporary and experimental sound, incorporating many differing influences from his musical journey. His first works released were two collections of piano pieces, then his first string quartet, in 2023.

Apart from being a composer, Márton has multiple jazz and electronic projects, while also working as a freelance musician and music producer.

Máté Balogh is a Hungarian composer and associate-professor of the Liszt Academy, Budapest. His music has been presented in many international festivals, such as: Manifeste Festival (IRCAM-Paris), ECCO Concert Series (Bruxelles), Milano Musica, Opus Amadeus (Istanbul), Kurtág&Ungarn (Bern), Listening to China (Shanghai), Ostrava Days, Axes Kraków, Café Budapest, St. Gellert Festival, Bartók Szeminárium, Korunk Zenéje, Budapesti Tavaszi Fesztivál, Minifesztivál, Átlátszó Hang Fesztivál, Artrium Festival. His pieces were interpreted by Ensemble Mozaik (GER), Alter Ego Ensemble (ITA), Sturm und Klang Ensemble (BE), Ensemble Hartmann21 (GER), Max Brand Ensemble (AUS), Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra (PRC), Huntsville Symphony Orchestra (USA), Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra (CZ), The Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra (PRC), JACK Quartet (USA), Asasello Quartet (GER), Stadler Quartet (AUS), Slovenian National Choir (SLO), Ostravská Banda (CZ) etc.

He was awarded the Junior Prima Prize, the Artisjus Prize and the Salvatore Quasimodo Prize, while his pieces have been awarded at many international composer competitions.

He is the composer of Zsófia Szilágyi's film entitled One Day (2018) which was awarded the Fipresci Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2018.

Recently, he is living in Budapest.

Theodor Burkali, Composer and Clarinetist, (born September 28, 1975 in Győr/Hungary) received his musical education at the Hans Richter Conservatory in Győr (clarinet with Prof. András Szabó and composition with Prof. László Draskóczy) and completed all his artistic-pedagogical music studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest (1999, in the concert studies with Prof. Béla Kovács), at the University Mozarteum Salzburg (2001, concert studies with Prof. Emil Rieder) and his doctoral studies at the University Mozarteum (2005, dissertation: ClariNova - New sound effects and playing techniques on the clarinet. Creation of the complete fingering chart of microtones and multiphonics with Prof. Dr. Horst-Peter Hesse) with unanimous distinction. In addition, he was an active participant in various master classes by Sabine Meyer, Michel Portal, Francois Benda, Jean-Pierre Baraglioli, Michiel Oldenkamp, Eugene Rousseau, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Franco Donatoni, Giya Kancheli, Philip Glass, György Kurtág, among others.

He has also won numerous national and international competitions, including the Jeunesse Musicales in Bucharest, the Seville International Competition, the Young Artist Competition (Belgium), the Yamaha Competition and the Franz-Josef Reinl Composition Competition in Vienna. In 2002 he received the Theodor Körner Prize for his compositional work and in 2004 the "Annual Scholarship for Music" of the State Government of Salzburg.

As a composer and clarinetist, he is present at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Cité de la musique Paris, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Queens Hall Edinburgh, the Salzburger Großes Festspielhaus, the Tonhalle Zürich and the New York Symphony Space. Concerts, radio and television productions took him to the USA, Asia and Africa.

In the 2010/2011 season he was composer in residence of the Salzburg Cultural Association. On this occasion, the performance of "Klezmorim" in the Großes Festspielhaus with the Brussels Philhamonic and the world premiere of "ORIGO" with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg took place.

His work "AEQUIBLIBRIUM" for ensemble was premiered in the summer of 2020 at the Salzburg Festival by the OENM Austrian Ensemble for New Music.

As an expert on new playing techniques on the clarinet, he gave workshops and guest lectures at several European universities. His dissertation "ClariNova" contains, among other things, more than 700 music and audio samples for multiphonics, various playing techniques and a complete fingering chart for microtones.

In addition to his concert activities as a member of the OENM - Austrian Ensemble for New Music, he is a teacher of clarinet and saxophone at the Musikum Salzburg and a lecturer at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg.

Commissions by

a.o. Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, Budapest Saxophone Quartet, Epoque String Quartet Prague, Salzburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Bottrop Chamber Orchestra, Salzburg Cathedral Music, Budapest Spring Festival, Salzburg State Government, Ballet of Győr, Cultural Association Schloss Goldegg, Lappeenranta Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of Győr, OENM Austrian Ensemble for New Music, stART Festival Salzburg, Trombone Quartet Trombonica, Saarland StateOrchestra, Diabelli Sommer Mattsee, Vienna Saxophonic Orchestra, Mobilis Saxophone Quartet, The Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation, Ensemble quart@art.