Peter Eötvös
Hungarian composer, conductor and teacher. Born in Transylvania in 1944, received diplomas from Budapest Academy of Music (composition) and Hochschule für Musik in Cologne (conducting). Between 1968 and 1976 he performed regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble. From 1971 to 1979 he collaborated with the electronic music studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne. In 1978, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he conducted the inaugural concert of IRCAM in Paris, and was subsequently named musical director of the Ensemble InterContemporain, a post he held until 1991.
In the 1980s he was a guest conductor of the German formation Ensemble Modern and also of orchestras such as BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic, and others. He taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Köln and at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe. In 1991 he founded the International Eötvös Institute in Hungary, whose aim is to help young conductors and composers. Eötvös composes operas, orchestral works and concerts. His compositions are restrained in sound and based on subtle expressive shades and a dramaturgy of form. They are not distinguished by complexity or virtuoso musicianship. His most frequently-played works include Chinese Opera, Psychokosmos, Atlantis, Shadows, Replica, zeroPoints etc. His opera Le Balcon, according to the play by Jean Genet, has also had a film version, which was a winner at the Zlatá Praha Festival in 2004. In 2015 the Köln Philharmonic performed the premiere of Eötvös’ one-act opera Senza sangue.