Artist database

This is the Artist Database of BMC, which includes information about composers, musicians, orchestras, choirs and groups that are either Hungarian or Hungarian by origin or live in Hungary, as well as information about releases recorded with them.

Horváth Balázs


conductor

Place of Birth
Budapest
Date of Birth
1976
Web

 
6 March 1976 Budapest

Balázs Horváth studied composition at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest where he received his degree with honours (summa cum laude) in 1999. His professors included Zoltán Jeney, Attila Bozay, and János Vajda. He finished his DLA in Composition at the Liszt Academy in 2005, while teaching there as well.

Horváth regularly appears at significant events of contemporary music. In summer 1994 he attended the Young Artists´ Composition Program at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, lead by Dr. Richard Cornell, in 1997 the 3rd International Young Composers´ Meeting in Apeldoorn, Holland and in September 2000 the Stockhausen Hymnen seminar lead by Péter Eötvös and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He also regularly participates in the Bartók Seminar, Szombathely, with such internationally renowned composers and conductors as Bryan Ferneyhough, Michael Jarrell, Marco Stroppa, Denis Smalley and László Tihanyi. In 2003 he was an assistant of Michael Jarrell and Jonathan Harvey at the Bartók Seminar.

He won 2nd prize, Composers´ Competition at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in 1997 and 1999, 3rd prize at the Composition Competition of the city Kecskemét in 1999, 2nd prize at the composers´ contest of Vántus István Társaság, Szeged in 2002 (Contraindications) and 2006 (Waiting for...). His Timesongs was selected as a finalist at the 17th ALEA III International Composition Competition, Boston, USA, and was performed on the 2nd October 1999 in Boston.

In 2000 Petrus-Passio won the main prize of the competition ´Megváltás´ in the Hungarian city of Törökszentmiklós and the following year he won ´Consolation Prize´ at the International Composition Prize of the Festival Internacional de Orquestas de Jóvenes Murcia (Spain). He won the 1st prize with his composition POLY at the ´In Memoriam György Ligeti´ composition contest in Berlin (2007).

In 2009 he came in second place with BORROWED IDEAS in the category for grand orchestral works at the UMZF Composing Competition. In 2011 in the final concert of the 2nd New Hungarian Music Forum two pieces by Horváth were performed. For (Tec)tonic he received 2nd prize in the chamber music category, while for the orchestral piece called Faust and friends in the Magic Castle he got the first prize.

His compositions are performed in Hungary and abroad as well such as the Budapest Autumn Festival, the Mini Festival - Budapest, the Új Magyar Művek Bemutatója (Premieres of New Hungarian Pieces), Hommage a Bartók - Hangversenyciklus 2006 (Concert series, 2006), the Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam, the 25th Centre Acanthes Festival in Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, the Szombathelyi Bartók Festival and Seminar, the Making New Waves, the ISCM World Music Days in Ljubljana (2003) and Gothenburg (2009), the Music of Today in London, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the FOCUS! 2007: The Magyar Legacy (New York) and the Music in Current (Tokyo).

His first orchestral piece, La Corsa Grande dei Clarinetti was recorded and performed by Bence Szepesi and the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gergely Vajda in 2001. Horváth's second orchestral piece for the same orchestra commissioned by the Hungarian Radio was premiered in February 2004 under the title Commentaries to Gabrieli. In 2004 and 2007 he was working as organiser and one of the artistic leaders of joint projects of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest and the New York based Juilliard School of Music. He also participated at the project as conductor.

On October 17, 2005 six of his compositions were performed at a portrait concert organised by the Budapest Autumn Festival, among which three were world premieres. The conductor of the concert was Horváth himself and his colleague, Gergely Vajda. Balázs Horváth regularly appears as conductor and performer at special occasions and performances of contemporary pieces.

Between 2000 and 2002 Balázs Horváth was recipient of the Zoltán Kodály Scholarship. He received the Benedek Istvánffy Prize for MAGNETS IV (round and round) in 2004 and for Waiting for... in 2007. In 2007 he received the Ferenc Erkel Prize.

From 2001 to 2006 his compositions were published by Editio Musica Budapest (EMB). Recently he has been more and more active as conductor. Since 2009 he has been leader of the contemporary music band THReNSeMBle.

see also: Horváth Balázs - composer