Artist database

He was born in 1955, September 26. Gyula Csapó studied composition at the Bartók Béla Conservatory, and the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy, where he graduated in Composision and Music Theory in 1981. He also studied privately under Zoltán Jeney. In 1979 he joined the New Music Studio. In 1981 Csapó received a French Government Scholarship to pursue studies in musical acoustics and computer music with David Wessel and Stephen McAdams at IRCAM, Paris. In 1983 he was awarded the Woodburn Fellowship (1983-87) to study with Morton Feldman in the United States. He taught at SUNY in Buffalo (1984-86) and completed his Ph.D. in Composition with financial help from the Soros Foundation (1987-89). He came into contact with John Cage, who recommended him for two grants from the New York Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.

After his work began being performed around the world (USA, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, Hungary) - including a performance of Handshake After Shot at Lincoln Center in 1990 - Csapó began teaching at McGill University in Montreal, then at Princeton in the States. He returned in Canada in 1994 where he he has taught Composition, Theory, History, Contemporary Music Ensemble.

In September, 1994, Hungarian Television produced a program featuring Gyula Csapó's music. The City of Köln sponsored a full evening of his music at the Alte Feuerwache in May, 1995. The compact disc recording of Csapó's "A Desert March..." was issued on the label Open Space in the United States in 1995. The "Korunk Zenéje" (The Music of Our Age) festival of contemporary music in Budapest programmed two Csapó works in October, 1996. In the same year he became Fellow at Collegium Budapest - Institute for Advanced Study. Also Csapó received a grant from the Canada Council to complete three electroacoustic works.

see also: Csapó Gyula - conductor