Ágnes Ratkó

Ágnes Ratkó

Keyboard and Harp Department

Chamber Music, Continuo, Harpsichord, Harpsichord as Main Subject, Historical Systems of Tuning

Academic degree, university position: DLA, associate professor

Studies:

Teachers’ Training Institute of the Liszt Ferenc College of Music, Budapest – piano major, teacher: Lajos Kertész

Liszt Ferenc College of Music, Budapest – accompanist-répétiteur major, teacher: Emília Varasdy

Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest – harpsichord major, teacher: Anikó Horváth

Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Wien – harpsichord studies with Gordon Murray

Oulu Conservatory, Finland – clavichord, teacher: Miklós Spányi

Major master classes: Nicholas Parle, Johann Sonnleitner, Jos van Immerseel, John Toll (harpsichord) and Tom Beghin (fortepiano)

 

Teaching activities:

1995–2013: University of Szeged, Faculty of Music – harpsichord major, continuo, chamber music, historical tuning, historical sources, improvisation, early music performance, Baroque keyboard music, materials, subject methodology, instrument methodology
Since 2003: Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music – continuo, chamber music, historical tuning; since 2012: harpsichord, subject didactics

 

Master classes:

2003-2006: teacher of harpsichord at the Early Music Summer School in Tokaj
2004 November: harpsichord master course, Belgrade, Ars Vivendi Clavicembalum Festival
2005 May: clavichord master class, Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Wien
2010, 2013: artistic director and teacher of the Budapest Clavichord Days
Other harpsichord and clavichord courses (Tibor Pikéthy Conservatory, Vác; Ybbs/Donau School of Music, Austria)
Répétiteur activity at international master classes and competitions (Barthold Kuijken, Wolf Matthias Friedrich, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Wettbewerb)

 

Major concerts:

She has given numerous concerts in Hungary and several countries of Europe as a harpsichordist, clavichordist, fortepiano soloist, as well as the member of chamber music and Baroque ensembles. As a solo performer, she has participated in several international festivals (Ars Vivendi Clavicembalum Festival, Serbia; Kerll-Rosenmüller Festival, Germany; 2003 Telemann Week in Budapest ; 2005 Budapest Harpsichord Days; 2011 Budapest
Cembalissimo Festival)

She has been featured in numerous CD and radio recordings – among others, she has recorded the works for four hands by János Fusz és Johann B. Spech on fortepiano partnering with Anikó Horváth, and she gave solo concerts in the Hungarian Radio’s live music series presenting the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Haydn.

As a member of the Jean-Marie Leclair Trio and other Baroque chamber music ensembles, she gives concerts on a regular basis in Hungary and Austria.

For many years, she was a continuo player in the Orfeo and Savaria Baroque orchestras, and for more than 10 years she has regularly performed with the Budapest Chamber Opera under the baton of conductors like Catherine Mackintosh and Philip Pickett.

In 2000 she premiered Gyula Bánkövi’s Reményvirágok (Flowers of Hope), dedicated to her, at the István Vántus Contemporary Music Days in Szeged with Balázs Bánfi, and performed it again in January 2001 at the Budapest Mini Festival. 

Doctoral dissertation:

In 2010, she earned her DLA degree with ‘summa cum laude’ distinction; title of dissertation: A historikus hangolások előadóművészi szempontból való megközelítése (Historical Tuning from the Viewpoint of the Performing Artist)