CURRENT TEACHER: GYÖRGY G. RATH

György 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 Orchestra, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Lyric Theater in Chicago, the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, the opera houses in Rome and Nice, Seville 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