Professors
Éva Marton
Professor emeritus
Marton Éva born in the heart of Europe, Hungary, is one of the world’s greatest dramatic sopranos. It is not easy to summarize her incredible career, since she has performed at all the top opera venues, including La Scala, Milan, the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Staatsoper in Vienna and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Her extraordinarily extensive repertoire covers virtually every key role in opera composed for the dramatic soprano voice. Alongside Verdi, Puccini, Richard Strauss and Wagner roles she frequently sang in verismo (Mascagni, Ponchielli, Giordano) operas, too. Her work has been recognized with countless awards both in Hungary and abroad, among them the Kossuth Prize, Bartók–Pásztory Prize, Prima Primissima Prize, Lifetime Achievement Award of the Graz Opera and recipient of the Corvin Chain.
She was honored as a National Artist of Hungary and with the Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, she is a lifetime member of the Vienna State Opera House and she is principal advisor to the Hungarian State Opera. She was Head of the Department of Vocal and Opera Studies of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music between 2005 and 2013, she continues to teach at the Liszt Academy as Professor Emerita.
Since 2016 the Éva Marton Singers Conmpetition also provides an opportunity for the young rising stars of opera singing to showcase their talents. Following the success of the competition she has decided to create an intensive studio course – the Marton Éva OperaStudio – for inspiring young opera singers who wish to work together and learn from one of the greatest soprano singers of our time.
Éva Marton. Photo: László Emmer
András Almási-Tóth
Stage director
Mr. András Almási-Tóth graduated from University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest in 1997.In 2009 he returned to the Liszt Academy, where he currently teaches stage acting as an associate professor, as well as directing opera exams and leading the Opera Programme. Since 2010 he has specialized in the genre of the opera: he has participated in the making of several contemporary operas, has researched directorial opera acting, and directed operas at the Hungarian State Opera, the Erkel Theatre, the Solti Hall of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, the Opera House of Wroclaw and the Budapest Music Center. He has held workshops in the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt and in the Conservatorio di Musica "Luigi Cherubini" in Florence. He held an international workshop in Cluj-Napoca, and he is a professor at the composers’ workshop of the Eötvös Péter Foundation in Budapest. His Hoffmann2012.com staged in the Theater am Pfalzbau, Ludwigshafen, won the Papageno Award of the Reiman Academy of Linz for the best German young theatre production, and two child actors of the performance were also awarded. Moreover, he has directed numerous prosaic performances at theatres in Budapest and other cities of Hungary. Besides his activity as a director, he has worked as a dramaturge of more than 30 prosaic, musical and dance performances. He wrote librettos for the opera “The Awakening of Spring” by Máté Bella and for the opera “Barbie Blue” by Gergely Vajda. He published two drama plays so far. In 2006 he was awarded with the István Örkény Drama Writing Scholarship.
Katalin Alter
Pianist
Katalin Alter was born in Munkács, Ukraine and studied at the music academies of Lvov and Kiev, where she was awarded a degree in piano, chamber music and piano accompaniment studies. She is from September 2007 the piano accompaniment for Éva Marton and from 2012 Andrea Meláth as well.
She has worked at master classes alongside the following well known performers: Éva Marton, Júlia Hamari, Sylvia Sass, Andrea Meláth, Renata Scotto, Anna Reynolds, Renato Bruson, Walter Moore, Jeanne Henny.
From 2000 she is the piano accompanist for Géza Oberfrank at the Hungarian State Opera,
She coached and accompanied on harpsichord Handel’s Julius Caesar and Haydn’s La pescatrici. During 2001 she coached the Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel and performed it at Leighton House, London. She participated in the work of the Toulouse Opera Workshop (Mozart: Marriage of Figaro) in 2003. In 2004 performed was the piano accompanist at the Bayrische Rundfunk Singing Competition, at the Prague Chamber Music Competition and at the Pavarotti Giovani Singing Competition. She has also performed concerts all around Europe: London, Paris, St. Petersburg, Prague, Liege, Brussels, Vienna, Vera, Almeria, Uzhhorod.
Gabriella Gyökér
Pianist
She studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and her career was connected to the institute. She first became the pianist and teacher at the String Department than she joined the singing department, where she is still active.
Gabriella Gyökér also gave concerts as a pianist. She performed many times in Hungary, as well as abroad: Washington, New York, Paris, London, Brussel and Salzburg. She became a main leader of the concert series in Komárom (Hungary) which series are very important for the local cultural life. She worked with the famous violin player Dénes Zsigmondy in Germany where they gave several chamber music concerts. Meanwhile she was active in the Cairo Opera House as well, where she performed contemporary music.
Gabriella Gyökér collaborates as a pianist with outstanding singing teachers like Prof. Em. Marton Éva. From 2006 she is working as her main piano accompanist at the Liszt Ferenc Academy in Budapest. She is also the main piano accompanist for Nicholas Clapton, professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Szabolcs Sándor
Pianist
He graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in 1998. The same year he was invited to the Hungarian State Opera House to work as a pianist accompanist. In 2000 he was appointed to the position of musical leader at the Opera Studio. Between 2001 and 2006 he helped with the development of multiple opera projects in Beijing such as the Turandot, Aida and La bohème. He studied conducting at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese where he received his diploma in 2007. In 2011 Eva Marton invited her to become professor at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.
In January 2010 he conducted the New Year Concert in Catania. In 2011 he conducted the Der Zigeunerprimas of Emmerich Kalman in the series of an operetta tour performed in Switzerland and in Germany. In April 2011 he conducted the Failoni Orchestra in 21 cities of Mexico performing 24 concerts. In 2011 he gave a concert for the memory of Franz Liszt at the Embassy of Hungary in Wien. Since 2014 he has been the conductor of the Hungaroperett Company and during that year conducted an Operetta Revue Tour consisting of 16 performances. In 2006 he won the third prize at International Opera-conductor Competition in Orvieto performed Puccini's La Bohéme. In 2008 he was rewarded with Laszlo Pless's prize by The Hungarian State Opera.