Born: 1970, Budapest
Subjects: orchestral practice (BA course), early music elective courses, continuo
Studies:
He started his musical studies as an instrumentalist:
he played the violin, flauto dolce, the oboe (then the baroque oboe) and the harpsichord.
1993: Franz Liszt Academy of Music, orchestral conducting:
diploma with distinction under Ervin Lukács
Master classes:
He frequently participated in the conducting master classes of John Eliot Gardiner and Helmuth Rilling;
1994-1997: student in the continuo master class of John Toll at the Academy of Early Music, Dresden.
(where he also studied chamber music under Jaap ter Linden and Simon Standage).
Teaching experiences:
Since 1992: continuo professor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music
1995-1997: baroque performance practice at the Musicology Department.
Conducting experiences:
György Vashegyi is considered to be an outstanding expert of early music and an excellent performer thereof in the Hungarian music scene. He gave his first concert at the age of 16. He graduated in Budapest with a concert performance of Mozart's Zauberflöte, and he made his operatic début with Gluck's Orfeo (with Derek Lee Ragin in the title role) at the Budapest Chamber Opera.
1994/95: successful tours with Gluck's Orfeo in France, Switzerland and Luxembourg with the Budapest Chamber Opera.
1998: Mozart's Idomeneo at the Hungarian Opera of Cluj-Napoca.
1999/2000: conductor of the MAV Symphony Orchestra and the Hungarian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra – concert world premiere of Levente Gyöngyösi's The Stork Caliph in Budapest (and he also conducted when the opera was staged at the Hungarian State Opera in 2005).
2000: his début at the Hungarian State Opera (with the Orfeo Orchestra) in 2000 with Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa, the first opera performance on period instruments in the history of the Hungarian State Opera.
2001/2002: he conducted Mozart's Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro in the Hungarian State Opera and Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the International Opera Festival Miskolc.
2003/2004: he conducted Mozart's operas (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, La clemenza di Tito) and Verdi's Don Carlos at the Hungarian State Opera. In the summer of 2004 he conducted the Mozart concerts of the Prague Chamber Orchestra at the Mozart Fest in Würzburg and at the Rheingau Festival.
2005: Levente Gyöngyösi: The Stork Caliph, Hungarian State Opera
Ensembles:
1990: He is the founder of the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra, Hungary's leading early music ensemble: their main repertoire ranges from Gesualdo to Haydn and Mozart, but they also perform later compositions.
1990: he founded the Purcell Choir in Budapest for a concert performance of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, 1991: performance of the complete L'Orfeo by Monteverdi for the first time in Hungary.
Both ensembles have given many successful concerts all over Europe.
These two ensembles are authentic exponents of classical compositions and have given many first performances in Hungary on period instrument. Beside the authentic interpretation of several masterpieces such as Mozart's Requiem or Così fan tutte they first performed in Hungray Bach's St. Matthew Passion in its entirety.
1998- Since the Haydn Festival was first organized in 1998 they have regularly given concerts at the Esterházy Palace in Fertőd where it takes place every year in September.
2002-2007 the Orfeo Orchestra performed Haydn's first 80 symphonies as part of Mr. Vashegyi's own concert series at the Esterházy Palace ; it was the first time since the 18th century that they were performed on period instruments.
2005: György Vashegyi and his ensembles were asked to perform Monteverdi's groundbreaking opera L'Orfeo as the opening performance of the Festival Theatre in Hungary's No. 1 cultural centre, the Palace of Arts.
On the same stage they performed Charpentier's Actéon and Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas, the first major composition of English stage music. The staging and performance of both one-act operas is considered unique.
Other orchestras and ensembles:
As a guest conductor, György Vashegyi gives concerts with other orchestras as well, at home and abroad alike.
In March 2002 Zoltán Kocsis invited him to conduct the National Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has also given concerts with other excellent early music ensembles and modern instrumental, symphony and chamber orchestras from Hungary and abroad alike: Concerto Armonico, Capella Savaria, Musica Aeterna, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of the Budapest Philharmonic Society, Cluj Philharmonic Orchestra, Danubia Symphonic Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Strings, Erdõdy Chamber Orchestra etc.
He has worked with many world-famous singers and instrumental soloists like Derek Lee Ragin, David Cordier, Paolo Gavanelli, Yevgeny Nesterenko, Simon Standage, Malcolm Bilson, Zvi Meniker, Sergiu Luca, John Toll, and Nigel North.
Recordings:
Since his first album released by Hungaroton in 1998 he has recorded several world-premiere albums including works by Istvánffy, Kraus, Charpentier, Tunder and Tartini, which are available both in Hungary and abroad.
Several CDs were released with his concert performances of works by Purcell, Mozart, Haydn and Bach.
Awards, honours:
2008: Liszt Award
Homepage: www.orfeo.hu
Contact: vashegyi.gyorgy@t-online.hu