Genres Classical music Website www.peter-halasz.com Occupation(s) Conductor, pianist Name Peter Halasz | Instruments Piano Role Conductor Years active 2002 – present | |
Born July 23, 1976 (age 47)
Budapest, Hungary ( 1976-07-23 ) | ||
Péter Halász (born July 23, 1976 in Budapest), is a Hungarian conductor.
Life and career
Péter Halász was born in 1976 in Budapest, Hungary. After studying piano and composition in his native city, he went on to study conducting in the class of Leopold Hager at the Vienna University of Music. He has attended Bernard Haitink’s master classes and was strongly influenced by Ádám Fischer whom he assisted at the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt.
After completing his formal studies, he joined the Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House in 2002/03 as a repetiteur. Between 2003 and 2011 he worked for the Mainz State Opera (Staatstheater Mainz) first as a répétiteur, then as a conductor. While there, he managed to learn a wide repertoire that ranges from baroque to modern music, conducting more than 20 opera productions, ballet performances and concerts.
As a guest conductor, Péter Halász conducted the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Suk Chamber Orchestra of Prague, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (North West German Philharmonic), and opera performances at the Augsburg Theatre, the Musiktheater im Revier and the Staatstheater Braunschweig (Braunschweig State Theatre). He made his debut in the Hungarian State Opera in 2010 (Rossini: The Barber of Seville) where he is a returning guest conductor.
From 2011, Péter Halász worked as the first conductor of the Aachen Opera and Symphony Orchestra and as of January 2013, he was appointed deputy music director. While there, he has conducted the premiers of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Poulenc’s La voix humaine, Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Sciarrino's Superflumina and also performances of Madama Butterfly by Puccini, The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart and Tristan und Isolde by Wagner.
In addition to his conducting activities, Péter Halász performs regularly as a pianist (Bösendorfersaal Wien, Opernhaus Zürich, Staatstheater Mainz). Since August 2013, he is currently the acting music director of the Hungarian State Opera.