CURRENT TEACHER: GYÖRGY G. RATH

 

rath-pGyörgy G. Ráth is among the few conductors who is familiar with the worlds of operas, oratories and symphonic music as well. His broad repertoire embraces classical music from Bach to Bartók, operas from Mozart through Verdi and Puccini to Janacek.

As music director of the Hungarian State Opera he created the first 3D performance of an opera in the world: Béla Bartok’s Bluebird’s castle and managed the Opera House over the past 15 years. He was the 10th chairman-conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Society Orchestra when he conducted the first time after the composer Mahler his Symphonic poem in two parts, thought lost for a long time. He himself reconstructed the work from the existing manuscripts, for which work he was granted the Doctor Liberalium Artium title from the University of Pécs.

In his career he as been a regular guest conductor of orchestras such as Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, RTL Orchestra in Luxemburg, Antwerp Philharmonic Orchestra, Chile National Philharmonic Orchestra, Toscanini Philharmonic in Parma, Hungarian National Radio Television Orchestra, Sophia Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony OrchestraTeatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Lyric Theater in Chicago, the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, the opera houses in Rome and NiceSeville Royal Philharmonics and Seoul Philharmonic.

He has also been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of pretigious orchestras such as RAI Italian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Seville Royal Philharmonic.

He worked in most countries of the world with artists like Marcello Alvarez, Renato Bruson, Ray Charles, José Cura, Daniela Dessi, Norma Fantini, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Maria Guleghina, Sumi Jo, Zoltán Zoltán, Gidon Kremer, Éva Marton, Viktoria Mullova, Leo Nucci, Uto Ughi, Giacomo Prestia, Samuel Ramey, Vadim Repin, Sylvia Sass and Grigorij Sokolov.

György G. Ráth regularly teaches young musicians. He wrote a book on the art of conducting, including his personal experience and things he had learned during his own studies from his Hungarian teachers, László Somogyi and Ervin Lukács, as well as from Franco Ferrara in Italy, Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa in the United States, Kurt Masur in Germany and Karl Österreicher in Austria.

Today György G. Ráth represents perfectly the legacy of the great Hungarian conductors, that comes from Arthur Nikisch and Hans Swarowsky and goes on until today passing through George Szell, Sándor Végh, Antal Dorati, Sir George Solti.

 

 

2020 EDITION: RICCARDO FRIZZA

 

Award-winning Italian maestro Riccardo Frizza is a galvanic presence on the podium, inspiring performances as exhilarating as they are expressive. Championed by Alberto Zedda, Bruno Cagli, and Gian Carlo Menotti, he is a leading exponent of bel canto repertoire, collaborating with a who’s who of today’s most iconic singers at opera houses from Milan’s Teatro alla Scala to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In the concert hall, he graces the podiums of such world-class ensembles as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony, while his extensive discography includes Decca’s Una furtiva lagrima, winner of the 2004 Cannes Classical Award.

Highlights of the 2019-20 season include I Puritani at the Opéra Bastille in Paris; Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) in Bilbao and Lucrezia Borgia at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo (Italy); a concert of arias from Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux alongside soprano Sondra Radvanovksy at Chicago Lyric Opera; a concert with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a programme entirely dedicated to Richard Strauss in Budapest; a Beethoven Concert with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino at Teatro Grande in Brescia (Italy); La sonnambula at Müpa Budapest; a concert with soprano Pretty Yende at Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège and Roberto Devereux at La Fenice in Venice.

In 2017 and 2018 Frizza directed Falstaff at Festival Verdi di Parma, La Traviata at New National Theatre in Tokyo, Il barbiere di Siviglia at Opéra National de Paris, Norma at Orchard Hall Bunkamura in Tokyo, Luisa Miller at Oper Zürich, L’elisir d’amore and Norma at Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Semiramide at Bayerische Staatsoper and Il pirata at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. In September 2017 Frizza was named Music Director of the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo.

 

2019 EDITION: GÜNTER NEUHOLD

 

Günter Neuhold was born in Graz, Austria, in 1947. In 1969 he completed his studies at the Graz Conservatoire with a masters degree. He then followed advanced courses in Rome with Franco Ferrara and in Vienna with Prof. Hans Swarowsky. Between 1972 and 1980 he was engaged at various German opera houses, a period he closed as first Kapellmeister in Hannover and Dortmund.

 After winning several competitions (Florence 1st prize 1976; San Remo „Marinuzzi“ 1st prize 1976; Vienna „Swarowsky“ 2nd prize 1977; Salzburg „Böhm“ 1st prize, 1977 Milan, „Cantelli“ 3rd prize 1977), he began an international career. From 1981 to 1986 he was Music Director at the Teatro Regio di Parma, where he devoted most of his time to Verdi operas and Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica „Arturo Toscanini“. From 1986 to 1990 he was Chief Conductor and Musical Director of the Koninklijk Filharmonisch Orkest van Vlaanderen in Antwerp, which achieved an international reputation during this period and toured in Germany, Italy, Great Britain and France. Günter Neuhold was General Music Director at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe from 1989 to 1995. In Karlsruhe he performed a Richard-Strauss-Zyklus and the „Ring des Nibelungen“. From 1995 to 2002 he was General Music Director and Artistic Director at the Theater der Freien Hansestadt Bremen. From 2008 to 2014 he was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao.

 Beside his permanent engagements he conducted the following orchestras: Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Philharmonia Orch., Orchestre National de France, WDR Köln, mdr Leipzig, NDR Hamburg und Hannover, SWF Baden Baden, SDR Stuttgart, RSO Berlin, Gürzenich-Köln, HNPO Budapest, ORF, RAI, Orch. Sinf. Naz. Torino, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orch. Teatro Mass. Palermo, Orch. Sinf. Siciliana, La Fenice Venezia, BBC-Cardiff, Capitole Toulouse, Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre Philharmonic de Nice, Orch. Philh. Monte Carlo, RTVE Madrid, Real Orqu. Sinf. de Sevilla, Liceu Barcelona, Orqu. Sinf. de Madrid, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Granada, Gulbenkian, Malmö S.O., Singapore Symphony, Qatar, Malaysian, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Incheon, Masan, Changwon, Busan, Tokyo Philharmonic, Metropolitan, Yomiuri, Orqu. Natcional Argentina, Orqu. Filarmonica TeatroColón, Córdoba, Orqu. Sinf. de São Paulo, Sinf.Brasileira RJ, Orqu. Sinf.Nacional, OFUNAM Mexico City, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Radio-TV-Tchaikovksy Moskau, Canadian B.C. Vancouver, Ontario Phil, ABC Australia Melbourne, Auckland.

 He has conducted operas at the Wiener Staatsoper, Scala Milano, Opernhaus Zürich, Staatsoper Dresden, Nationaltheater München, Berliner Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, Oper Leipzig, State Opera Budapest, Teatro Real Madrid, Opéra Monte Carlo, Chatelet, Opera National de Paris, Teatro Colon B.A., Grand Théatre de Genéve, Bordeaux, Capitole Toulouse, Opera Nat. du Rhin Strasbourg, Den Norske Opera Oslo, Göteborgs Operan, Teatro Sao Carlos Lisboa, Opera Roma, Teatro Com. Bologna, Genova, Teatro Mass. Palermo, Catania, Philadelphia Opera, NNTTokyo, Tours in USA, Japan and Russia. Festivals: Salzburger Festspiele 78, 80, 83, 86, Festival de Radio France-Montpellier, Vlaanderen Festival, Biennale Venice, Enescu Festival Bucarest 98 Musikfestspiele and Intern.Strauss Festival Dresden,.Colorado Music-Festival 99. Granada Festival 2000, Festival de Santander