Péter Eötvös

Hungarian composer and conductor Péter Eötvös has combined both activities throughout his career, gaining widespread recognition in the field of contemporary music. Born in Székelyudvarhely in Transylvania on January 2, 1944, he grew up in Budapest, learning to play the piano from an early age. Drawn to composing, he met György Ligeti, who steered him towards the Franz Liszt Academy, where his teacher was János Viski. At the same time, Péter Eötvös also studied with Zoltán Kodály. As early as 1958, Péter Eötvös began improvising at film screenings and, thanks to a grant, was able to work as an electronic music editor at the WDR studio in Cologne from 1971 to 1979. He then began taking lessons in composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann as well as studying orchestral conducting. Hired as an assistant by Karlheinz Stockhausen, he conducted Stockhausen's works and caught the attention of Pierre Boulez, who invited him to conduct the inaugural concert of IRCAM in 1978, before offering him the directorship of the Ensemble Intercontemporain (1979-1991). Péter Eötvös conducted his own composition Chinese Opera (1986) and recorded numerous works of modern and contemporary music with various ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien and orchestras. Most notably, he collaborated with the BBC Orchestra between 1985 and 1988. Based on Chekhov's play, his opera Three Sisters (1998) demonstrated his sense of scenic dramaturgy and musical innovation, soon followed by other operatic works such as Angels in America (2004), Love and Other Demons (2007), Lady Sarashina (2007), Paradise Reloaded (Lilith) (2013), Senza Sangue (2015), Sleepless (2021) and Valuska (2023), among numerous orchestral, choral or vocal compositions and chamber music. He was appointed conductor of the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra (1994-2005), then became conductor of the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra (2003-2007). In 1991, Péter Eötvös created a foundation in his name for young composers and conductors, and taught at the Karlsruhe Hochschule für Musik (1992-1998, then 2002-2007) and the Cologne Hochschule für Musik (1998-2001). On March 24, 2024, Péter Eötvös died after a long illness at the age of 80.

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