Artist database

István Győrffy, composer, was born in Budapest in 1954. He graduated from the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music in 1972, as a student of József Soproni and Éva Bántainé Sipos, among others. In 1977 he graduated as a composer and music theory teacher at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he studied with Professors Albert Semyonovich Lehmann and Yuri Nikolayevich Holopov.

From 1977 to 2018, he was a teacher at the Pécs Art High School, where he re-launched the composition department in 1987. He has also taught at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pécs and its predecessor institutions (music theory, analysis, counterpoint, composition practice). After his retirement, he is a lecturer at both institutions.

He was awarded a ministerial commendation in 1985. Between 1987 and 1993 he was deputy conductor of the choir of the Evangelical Congregation of Pécs. Since 1988 he has served as Lutheran cantor in Egyházaskozár. In 1994 his textbook "A guide to Bach chorales" was published by the Tárogató publishing house.

Member of the National Music Committee of the Hungarian Evangelical Church.


Music:

- Chamber pieces for various arrangements
- Song cycles and choral works on poems by Lajos Kassák, Árpád Tóth, Gyula Sipos, Jenő Dsida, Barnabás Antal and old Japanese poets
- Organ and piano pieces
- Three symphonic episodes - for symphony orchestra (Diploma thesis 1977)
- Lutheran and Reformed congregational hymn arrangements for mixed and single-sex choir, wind chamber ensemble
- wind orchestra pieces, orchestrations

Writings:

- Harmonic guide to Bach chorales (Publisher: Tárogató, 1994)
- Classical Generalbass (Publisher: Rózsavölgyi - since 2009 3 Hungarian and one English edition)
- Articles, music theory studies and translations from Russian

Prizes and awards:

- Ministerial Commendation (1985)
- Golden Cathedral commemorative plaque (2011)
- Teacher's Service Medal (2018)
- Bonis Bona Award (2021)
- Diploma of the Hungarian Academy of Arts (2024)