Full Bio
Fall 2015
Bálint Karosi is an award-winning Hungarian composer, concert
organist, and recording artist. He has won first prizes at the J. S.
Bach Competition in Leipzig, the Dublin and Miami International
Organ Competitions and the Improvisation Competition of the
University of Michigan. He has performed in Germany, France,
Switzerland, Poland, Norway, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Ireland
and in many of the United States. His CDs include a critically
acclaimed album of the Clavier-übung III by J. S. Bach, featuring the
period vocal ensemble Canto Armonico that was released by
Hungaroton in 2014. He is under contract with the same label to
release Bach’s Kunst der Fuge - recorded on the organ, harpsichord
and clavichord- in 2016, and an album of his own compositions later
that year.
Bálint Karosi is a published composer by Wayne Leupold Editions
and Concordia Publishing House. His compositions have been
performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Yale
Philharmonia Orchestra, UMZE in Budapest, Musiciens Libres, the
Miskolc Symphony Orchestra, Anima Musica Chamber Orchestra,
Antico Moderno, the Norfolk Festival Chorus, Canto Armonico and
the Boston Choral Ensemble. His recent commissions include a multimovement work Exoplanets, for the Anima Musica Chamber
orchestra in Budapest, a Festival Overture for the Wind Symphony of
Concordia University in Chicago, and his second organ concerto for
János Pálúr and the Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orchestra. He has started
working on his first opera, Body Works that addresses issues of
identity and racism with a bi-lingual libretto by Almási András Tóth.
Bálint has recently been appointed as Cantor at Saint Peter’s
Lutheran Church in downtown Manhattan, where he oversees an
ambitious classical music program and collaborates with the visual
arts and jazz ministries. Prior to this appointment, he had served as
Minister of Music at the First Lutheran Church of Boston for eight
years, where he founded and directed the acclaimed “Boston Bach
Birthday,” a daylong celebration of the composer’s birthday, cosponsored by the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists
and other art organizations in Boston. The festival gained significant
media attention under his management, including live broadcasts on
WGBH Classical New England, and featured many world-renowned
performers. He also established First Lutheran’s own Bach Vespers,
a series of cantata performances in a worship setting on period
instruments, and co-founded Antico Moderno, an ensemble dedicated
to commission and perform new works for period players. (Antico
Moderno’s New York debut is scheduled at Saint Peter’s in May
2016.)
Bálint has completed the academic portion of his doctoral studies in
composition at Yale University. He holds a Master’s degree and an
Artist Diploma from the Oberlin Conservatory, two Master’s degrees
from the Liszt Academy in Budapest (in clarinet and organ
performance), and two Prix de Virtuosités from the Conservatoire
Supérieur de Genève in Switzerland. He has taught music theory at
Yale University, organ an improvisation at Boston University, the
University of Massachusetts Boston and the Oberlin Conservatory.
He regularly gives masterclasses and concerts in the United States
and in Europe, and is under concert management with Penny Lorenz.
Websites:
www.karosi.org
www.anticomoderno.org
www.organists.net