Szabados György
piano
13 July 1939 Budapest - 10 June 2011
A well-known character of contemporary improvised music all over Europe, György Szabados was born in Budapest on 13 July 1939. His father was a physician, his mother a singer and singing teacher. His extraordinary talents, his improvising piano playing and constant eagerness to express himself and compose showed at a very early age. His musical studies were determined by these unfolding abilities, and he completed his musical studies privately. In the meantime, fulfilling the wish of his father, he also took a degree as a doctor.
The evolvement of his career was seriously hindered by the extremely closed, ideologically restricted intellectual and artistic life in Hungary under the socialist regime, when all alternative attitudes and aesthetics were considered as dangerous therefore they were forbidden and put down. Just as well as in Europe, in Hungary it was jazz that provided a paradigm for the evolution of living musicality, consequently, Szabados himself found jazz the language through which his improvising abilities could be articulated.
Nevertheless, Szabados is not a jazz musician in the regular sense of the word. His music is extraordinarily dynamic, European and Hungarian at the same time viewed from both the aspect of traditionality and modernity, filled with the freshness of spontaneity and the power of intellect.
It was not earlier than 1972 that he finally managed to break out of isolation with the help of jazz. He won the Grand Prize at the San Sebastian Jazz Competition in the category of Free Jazz, which gave him reason to rejoice, but also caused him trouble. Eventually he was able to give more concerts, especially at university jazz clubs. He founded a contemporary music workshop, where he introduced a number of students to the world of improvised contemporary music. His approach to music is rooted in his belief in the harmony of free improvisation and composition, and in music being a natural language and man a sophisticated mediator.
From the 1980s Szabados was able to give concerts abroad on a regular basis, make recordings and pursue a career as a creative and acknowledged musician. His powerful and unique musical vocabulary constitutes an individual direction in the music of today. He regularly publishes writings on musical subjects.
He has performed together with Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton (with whom he made recordings as well), with Peter Kowald, Johannes and Connie Bauer, Fred van Hove, Evan Parker, Jiri Stivin, Hans-Ludwig Petrowsky, and Vladimir Tarasov to name just a few. In recognition of his work he was given the highest Hungarian music award, the Ferenc Liszt Prize in 1983. In 2001 he also received the Prize for the Hungarian Arts and the Gábor Szabó Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hungarian Jazz Federation.
Szabados has composed music for a ballet (Iván Markó), for dance theatre (Joseph Nadj), a piece commemorating the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, ritual music, several solo piano and chamber pieces. In succession to his contemporary music workshop he established the improvising orchestra named MAKUZ (Orchestra of the Hungarian Royal Court), which became the interpreter of his ensemble compositions.
Prizes
2011 Kossuth Prize
György Szabados solo concert (short fragment)
MEDIAWAVE Regional and TV Archives
A well-known character of contemporary improvised music all over Europe, György Szabados was born in Budapest on 13 July 1939. His father was a physician, his mother a singer and singing teacher. His extraordinary talents, his improvising piano playing and constant eagerness to express himself and compose showed at a very early age. His musical studies were determined by these unfolding abilities, and he completed his musical studies privately. In the meantime, fulfilling the wish of his father, he also took a degree as a doctor.
The evolvement of his career was seriously hindered by the extremely closed, ideologically restricted intellectual and artistic life in Hungary under the socialist regime, when all alternative attitudes and aesthetics were considered as dangerous therefore they were forbidden and put down. Just as well as in Europe, in Hungary it was jazz that provided a paradigm for the evolution of living musicality, consequently, Szabados himself found jazz the language through which his improvising abilities could be articulated.
Nevertheless, Szabados is not a jazz musician in the regular sense of the word. His music is extraordinarily dynamic, European and Hungarian at the same time viewed from both the aspect of traditionality and modernity, filled with the freshness of spontaneity and the power of intellect.
It was not earlier than 1972 that he finally managed to break out of isolation with the help of jazz. He won the Grand Prize at the San Sebastian Jazz Competition in the category of Free Jazz, which gave him reason to rejoice, but also caused him trouble. Eventually he was able to give more concerts, especially at university jazz clubs. He founded a contemporary music workshop, where he introduced a number of students to the world of improvised contemporary music. His approach to music is rooted in his belief in the harmony of free improvisation and composition, and in music being a natural language and man a sophisticated mediator.
From the 1980s Szabados was able to give concerts abroad on a regular basis, make recordings and pursue a career as a creative and acknowledged musician. His powerful and unique musical vocabulary constitutes an individual direction in the music of today. He regularly publishes writings on musical subjects.
He has performed together with Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton (with whom he made recordings as well), with Peter Kowald, Johannes and Connie Bauer, Fred van Hove, Evan Parker, Jiri Stivin, Hans-Ludwig Petrowsky, and Vladimir Tarasov to name just a few. In recognition of his work he was given the highest Hungarian music award, the Ferenc Liszt Prize in 1983. In 2001 he also received the Prize for the Hungarian Arts and the Gábor Szabó Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hungarian Jazz Federation.
Szabados has composed music for a ballet (Iván Markó), for dance theatre (Joseph Nadj), a piece commemorating the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, ritual music, several solo piano and chamber pieces. In succession to his contemporary music workshop he established the improvising orchestra named MAKUZ (Orchestra of the Hungarian Royal Court), which became the interpreter of his ensemble compositions.
Prizes
2011 Kossuth Prize
György Szabados solo concert (short fragment)
MEDIAWAVE Regional and TV Archives