Artist database

János Kovács obtained his conducting diploma from the Franz Liszt Music College in 1973 where he studied under András Kórodi. He later graduated from the piano faculty. Since 1976, he has been under contract at the Hungarian State Opera House. Between 1979 to 1981, he was a musical assistant at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1984 he was awarded the Franz Liszt Prize. From 1987-1990 he was the resident conductor at the Hungarian State Opera House. Besides his work at the Budapest Opera House, he has regularly conducted the three major Budapest orchestras and has also worked widely with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. János Kovács is the principal guest conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and since 1992, has been resident guest conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic. As a guest artist, he has worked in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and also accompanied the Hungarian State Opera to Berlin and London. He enjoyed a great success and gained much recognition as a concert and opera conductor at the Baden State Theatre. Since 2001, János Kovács has been the principal guest conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Society. In this same year, he was awarded the Kossuth Prize for his work.

Awards:
1978 Bence Szabolcsi Award
1980 Vilmos Komor Plaquette
1985 Ferenc Liszt Award
1991 Gusztáv Oláh Plaquette (theatre)
1996 Merited Artist
2001 Kossuth Prize
2003 Inter Lyra Award
2007 Bartók-Pásztory Award