Artist database

Zoltán Kovács was born in Budapest in 1969. He began to learn to play the piano at the age of 7. Later, at the age of 13, he started to play the bassoon. He continued his studies at the Bartók Béla Vocational School of Music, where he was taught composition by Miklós Kocsár and bassoon by László Hara, Jr. In 1987, he was admitted to the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. There, his composition professor was Emil Petrovics, while he learned to play the bassoon from Tibor Fülemile and Gábor Janota.

It was in these years that he wrote his first orchestra piece (Accompanying Music – 1988), which made him a recognised figure, and whose recording with the Radio Orchestra earned him a special award from Hungarian Radio in 1990. In 1991, he won the audition of the Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera House for the place of first bassoonist. From 2001, as a member of the ‘Concordia Wind Quintet’, he participated in several concerts in Hungary, as well as abroad.

He received his composer diploma in 1993, and this was the occasion at which his ‘Violin Competition’ was performed by Ágnes Soltész and the orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera House (conducted by János Kovács). Between 1994 and 1996, he taught orchestration and score reading at the Academy of Music.

Since 2012 Zoltán Kovács has been a member of Hungarian Academy of Arts.

Awards
2007 Artisjus-Prize
2008 Benedek Istvánffy-Prize
2009 Ferenc Erkel Prize
2021 Bartók-Pásztory-Prize