New Hungarian Musical Forum’s Composer Competition Prizes Awarded

In the symphony orchestra category no first prize was awarded this year, the second prize was taken by Máté Balogh, a doctoral student at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, with his composition Quintet and Andrej Slezák’s inSpiral, and Gyula Bánkövi came in third with Zöldfény-udvarú éj (The Night of Green Halo). From among the chamber music works, Máté Balogh’s Melodiemusik won the first prize and Alessio Elia took second with Eltűnő szivárványok (Disappearing Rainbows). The third place was a draw between Marcell Dargay’s Moment of the immortal immigrant and László Sándor, also a doctoral student of the Liszt Academy, with his work Divertimento – Giuco dei suoni. “The jury unanimously judged the chamber music compositions to be of higher quality than the orchestral works, therefore we have not given out a first prize in the category of symphony orchestra. Since the total amount of awards remained unchanged, we decided, in agreement with the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, to award two second prizes in the orchestra category and two third prizes in the chamber music category by distributing the unused first place prize money,” said Zoltán Jeney, the head of the jury.

25-year-old Máté Balogh was recipient of the special award from the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, the two prizes of the Editio Musica Budapest (in the orchestra and chamber music category), as well as the special award granted by the Óbuda Danubia Orchestra. The two prizes from Fidelio were won by Marcell Dargay and Andrej Slezák, while the special award of the Palace of Arts was presented to Gyula Bánkövi. On the occasion of the 70^th anniversary of his death, this year the competition paid homage to Béla Bartók by inviting entries that were inspired by the composer’s art or personality. The four chamber music pieces that reached the finals were performed on Tuesday 6^th October in the Budapest Music Center (BMC), while the gala concert of the four finalists in the orchestra category took place next day, on Wednesday night at the Palace of Arts. Both concerts, performed by the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gergely Vajda, were presented within the framework of the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival.

The jury of the finals – featuring jury chairman Zoltán Jeney, Professor Emeritus of the Liszt Academy, as well as composer József Sári and conductor Gergely Vajda – made their decision right after the orchestra finals, and then handed out the awards in both categories.

Congratulations to the winners!