János Rolla to Receive This Year’s Weiner Leó Memorial Prize

The Kossuth Prize laureate musician, who celebrated his 70^th birthday last year, collected the award at the prize giving ceremony held Wednesday afternoon in the Assembly Hall of the Liszt Academy. The prize has been granted by a board chaired by harpist Dr. Andrea Vigh, President of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, its members including cellist János Devich, violinist Sándor Devich and pianists Sándor Falvai and Márta Gulyás. In his laudation speech given at the awarding ceremony, János Devich underlined: “In educating young people János Rolla combines a deeply humane attitude and kind-hearted joviality with rigorous professionalism, an unfailing sense of style, tireless work and unrelenting work ethic. He sets an example for young musicians by showing that it is talent coupled with hard work and reliability that lead to success.”

According to the last will and testament of Mrs. Imre Schwartz, the heir of Leó Weiner, the composer’s legacy and funds have been inherited by the Liszt Academy. To guarantee the worthy use of the money, the university set up a board, which established the Weiner Leó Memorial Prize in 2004. The award is given to performing artists who through their decades-long participation in the domestic and international concert life have made an important contribution to chamber music culture. The first musician to receive the Weiner Leó Memorial Prize was cellist Ede Banda in 2004. The award winners of recent years include Judit Hevesi and György Miklós (divided award), Sándor Devich and György Konrád (divided award), the Bartók String Quartet, Kornél Zempléni, Richard Weninger and István Kassai.

This year’s laureate János Rolla was born in Kőtelek, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county. Besides his violin studies he was going to be an engineer for a long while, but eventually he graduated at the Liszt Academy in 1969 as the student of Dénes Kovács. While still at university, he founded the Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orchestra with his fellow students in spring 1963, and became its concertmaster and later artistic director. With his ensemble he has performed at the most prestigious festivals and concert venues around the world, including the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Sydney Opera House, or the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; among their partners were such luminaries as Maurice André, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern and Sviatoslav Richter. János Rolla initiated the establishment of the The Zemplén Arts Day (today Zemplén Festival) in 1992, and he was elected honorary citizen of Sárospatak in 2006. In appreciation for his work he was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist (1981), the Bartók-Pásztory Prize (1984), the Kossuth Prize (1985), the Cross of Order of the Hungarian Republic (1994), the Ferenc Széchenyi Memorial Medal (1999), the Cross of Order with a Star of the Hungarian Republic (2004), the Main Prize of the Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae Foundation (2006) and the My Country Award (2011). In 1991 he became ‘Chevalier de la Culture’ in France. In 2007 he received honorary professorship at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, and from 2009 to 2011 he was the head of the Chamber Music Department.

MTI/zeneakademia.hu