Rajk Judit
voice - alto
Place of Birth
Budapest
Date of Birth
Orchestra
Web
Judit Rajk, contralto, graduated at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. She received her doctor’s degree in 2009, and now she is an Associate Professor at the Church Music Department. She is teaching solo singing, methodology and vocal history. Since 2013 she is also a Professor at the International Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, teaching voice training.
She is a concert singer, famous for her extremely deep but shiny contralto voice and for her unique repertoire which encompasses early Gregorian chants, lieder and oratorios and also contemporary pieces. She has worked with lots of contemporary composers, who dedicated works for her. Among others, she recorded the main role of the contemporary opera Roman Fever by Gyula Fekete at Hungaroton (2000), Allen Brings's Songs for Arizona University Recordings (2009), she collaborated with the Oscar prize winner actor, Maximillian Schell in a Memorial Oratorio for the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust (2006), sang the Turkish premiére of the arias and excerpts of Kamran Ince's opera called Judgment of Midas with the Bilken Symphony Orchestra in Sardis, Turkey.
In 2005, 2011 and in 2018 she received the Artisjus Prize for performing new Hungarian contemporary music. Ms. Rajk collaborated on projects with several orchestras in Hungary and abroad, as the Budapest Strings, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the Concertante di Chicago and the Turkish Presidential Orchestra. She gave recitals in concert halls like the Grand Hall of the Music Academy in Budapest, the Deutsche Oper, the Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Ermitage Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Süreyya Opera house in Istanbul.
She is a noticed chamber musician and a professor worldwide, guest of festivals and masterclasses, working with famous soloists and chamber ensembles, among others the recorder player and conductor Maurice Steger, the clarinettist Lorenzo Coppola and Horia Dumitrache, the pianist Zoltán Kocsis, László Borbély, Özgür Aydin, the French horn player David Cooper, the cimbalom player András Szalai, the Saint Ephreme Male Choir, the Ensemble UnitedBerlin and the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Soloists. She has been members and founders of chamber ensembles as the Corelli Consort, the ContrasTon and the Trio Passacaglia. She recorded CDs at Hungaroton, BMC and the Liszt Academy, her newest solo CD will be realised during the season of 2019/2020 at Hungaroton, including orchestral songs by Kodaly and contemporary composers, in cooperation with the Budapest Strings conducted by Alessandro Cedrone.
In 2019 György Kurtág wrote and dedicated his last piece, the Seven Songs under the title "… sleep no more...” Op.50. to Judit Rajk.
Since 2009 Ms. Rajk has been working as the artistic manager of the FUGA classical concerts at FUGA Budapest, and she is the Head of the Board of the European Cultural Foundation Budapest.
She has been the director of Kodály Institut since the 1st of September 2023.
She is a concert singer, famous for her extremely deep but shiny contralto voice and for her unique repertoire which encompasses early Gregorian chants, lieder and oratorios and also contemporary pieces. She has worked with lots of contemporary composers, who dedicated works for her. Among others, she recorded the main role of the contemporary opera Roman Fever by Gyula Fekete at Hungaroton (2000), Allen Brings's Songs for Arizona University Recordings (2009), she collaborated with the Oscar prize winner actor, Maximillian Schell in a Memorial Oratorio for the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust (2006), sang the Turkish premiére of the arias and excerpts of Kamran Ince's opera called Judgment of Midas with the Bilken Symphony Orchestra in Sardis, Turkey.
In 2005, 2011 and in 2018 she received the Artisjus Prize for performing new Hungarian contemporary music. Ms. Rajk collaborated on projects with several orchestras in Hungary and abroad, as the Budapest Strings, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the Concertante di Chicago and the Turkish Presidential Orchestra. She gave recitals in concert halls like the Grand Hall of the Music Academy in Budapest, the Deutsche Oper, the Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Ermitage Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Süreyya Opera house in Istanbul.
She is a noticed chamber musician and a professor worldwide, guest of festivals and masterclasses, working with famous soloists and chamber ensembles, among others the recorder player and conductor Maurice Steger, the clarinettist Lorenzo Coppola and Horia Dumitrache, the pianist Zoltán Kocsis, László Borbély, Özgür Aydin, the French horn player David Cooper, the cimbalom player András Szalai, the Saint Ephreme Male Choir, the Ensemble UnitedBerlin and the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Soloists. She has been members and founders of chamber ensembles as the Corelli Consort, the ContrasTon and the Trio Passacaglia. She recorded CDs at Hungaroton, BMC and the Liszt Academy, her newest solo CD will be realised during the season of 2019/2020 at Hungaroton, including orchestral songs by Kodaly and contemporary composers, in cooperation with the Budapest Strings conducted by Alessandro Cedrone.
In 2019 György Kurtág wrote and dedicated his last piece, the Seven Songs under the title "… sleep no more...” Op.50. to Judit Rajk.
Since 2009 Ms. Rajk has been working as the artistic manager of the FUGA classical concerts at FUGA Budapest, and she is the Head of the Board of the European Cultural Foundation Budapest.
She has been the director of Kodály Institut since the 1st of September 2023.
| Year | Title | Publisher | Code | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 |
Fekete Gyula: Római láz; Elégia
(Fekete, Gyula: Roman Fever; Elegia) |
Hungaroton | HCD 31914 | |
| 2020 | Judit Rajk: Stolen Time | Hungaroton | HCD 32844 |
Own |