Peter Eötvös
Conductor/Composer
Composer, conductor and teacher; Hungarian Peter Eötvös combines all three roles in one very
high-profile career. His music features regularly in the programmes of orchestras, contemporary
music ensembles and festivals worldwide, and as composer and conductor he has led projects
focusing on his work at cities across the globe.
His operas Love and Other Demons, Le Balcon, Angels in America and Lady Sarashina followed
Three Sisters in generating an ever-increasing number of new productions. Two further operas
Paradise Reloaded (Lilith) and Golden Dragon, were premiered in 2013/14, and last season saw
the premiere of his latest opera Senza Sangue, for the New York Philharmonic and Kölner
Philharmonie. Recent seasons have seen several new works, including Cello Concerto Grosso for
Berliner Philharmoniker, the violin concerto DoReMi, Speaking Drums for percussion solo &
orchestra, da capo for cimbalom solo and ensemble as well as Dodici for 12 ‘celli. This season, he
will present Halleluja: Oratorium balbulum, a new piece for soloists, choir and orchestra, to be
premiered at the Salzburger Festspiele.
Eötvös’ conducting activities are characterised by long-term relationships with Europe's most
prestigious orchestras, opera houses and leading ensembles. From 1985 to 2011, he held
conducting titles with the Radio Chamber Orchestra Hilversum, Gothenburg Symphony, BBC
Symphony and Budapest Festival orchestras, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR and
Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. This season his conducting engagements include a new
production of Three Sisters at Wiener Staatsoper and performances of Senza Sangue in Bergen,
Gothenburg and Avignon.
Widely regarded as one of the world's leading interpreters of contemporary music, Eötvös
performed regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and 1976 and collaborated
with the electronic music studio of Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne from 1971 to 1979. In
1978, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he became Musical Director of the Ensemble
intercontemporain, a post he held until 1991. In 2015 he led the London Symphony Orchestra’s
celebration of Boulez’s 90th birthday, and this season he will take part in a major presentation of
Stockhausen’s music for Musica Viva in Munich.
Alongside his career as composer and conductor, Eötvös places equal importance on his teaching
activities - especially his work at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe (1992-98 and 2002-08),
Musikhochschule Köln (1998-2001) and at the International Eötvös Institute and Foundation for
young composers and conductors in Budapest which he founded in 1991, and the Eötvös
Contemporary Music Foundation which he established in 2004.
Eötvös’ works have been recorded by BMC, Naïve, BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, ECM, KAIROS
and Col Legno. His music is published by Editio Musica (Budapest), Ricordi (Berlin), Salabert
(Paris) and Schott Music (Mainz). He is a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin,
Szechenyi Academy of Art in Budapest, Sächsische Akademie der Künste in Dresden and the
Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2014 he was appointed an Honorary Academician of Santa
Cecilia and in 2015 presented with the Order of Saint Stephen by the Hungarian President.
Eötvös has been honoured with numerous awards throughout his career including the Officier and
the Commandeur de l´Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Kossuth Prize, Bartók Prize, a Royal
Philharmonic Society Music Award, the Prize SACD Palmarès in the category ‘Prix Musique’ and
the Frankfurt Music Prize. He has also received the Biennale di Venezia’s ‘Golden Lion’ lifetime
achievement award in music, the Cannes Classical ‘Living Composer’ Award and Pro Europa
Composition Prize and was nominated for a Grammy in 2004, and again in 2013 for his recording
of Ligeti’s Requiem. His recording with Patricia Kopatchinskaja of the Bartók, Ligeti and Eötvös
violin concertos, with hr-Sinfonieorchester and Ensemble Modern, won Gramophone’s ‘Recording
of the Year’ in 2013 and was awarded prizes by ICMA and Echo Klassik, as well as being
nominated for a Grammy.
2015/16 season only. Please contact HarrisonParrott if you wish to edit this biography.