Introduction

Liszt-prize winning conductor Gábor Hollerung directs the Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra and the Budapest Academic Choral Society, is one of the founders of the Budapest International Choir Competition and organisor and artistic director of other prestigious international choir competitions and the Choir Games organised by Interkultur.

Gábor Hollerung was born in1954 inBudapest. He studied Choral Conducting and Conducting at Ferenc Liszt College (now University) of Music and got further training at the master courses by László Somogyi, Eric Ericson and Kurt Masur.

From 1979 he was vice-conductor of Miskolc Symphonic Orchestra for two years. Subsequently, he taught Choral Conducting and Music Theory at Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, and he was the conductor of the local women’s chorus. At the same time, he was conductor of KPVDSZ (Kereskedelmi, Pénzügyi, Vendéglátóipari Dolgozók Szakszervezete, Trade Union for Workers of Business, Finance, Catering Trade) semi-professional symphonic orchestra. Since 1989 he has been the director of Dohnányi Ernő Symphonic Orchestra. Under his direction in the course of a few years the amateur youth orchestra developed to a professional level and it was formed into a professional orchestra in 1993.
Since 1980 he has been directing conductor of the Budapest Academic Choral Society. He can claim an extraordinary success with this choir, which has been ranked among the first in various European choir competitions, and has won several grand prizes, among them that of the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition of Debrecen and the title “Choir of the World” in Llangollen. He was also awarded the prize for the best conductor in 1984 in Debrecen.
In 2002 he was appointed First Guest Conductor of the Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra. Since 2002 he has been artistic consultant to Philharmonia Singers Tel Aviv.

He has travelled the world with his ensembles. They have been giving concerts in England, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Holland, Taiwan, Australia and Mexico. His choir was invited as one of the world’s thirty best choirs to participate in IFCM’s 4th Choral Music World Symposium in Sydney.

In 1988 he took initiative in launching a choir competition with a new artistic concept in Budapest, which since then has grown into an internationally-recognised and acclaimed programme series. Following the example of the Budapest International Choir Competition, new choir events have been realised under the name Musica Mundi in Italy, Germany, Israel and in the United States.
Gábor Hollerung is one of the artistic directors of INTERKULTUR International Musical Competitions Foundation, MUSICA MUNDI festival series and Choir Olympics. He is the president of the Hungarian Choir Competitions and Festivals Association, founded in 1988. Since 2004 he has been director and since 2006 artistic director of Zemplén Festival, a festival with great traditions.

As a guest conductor, apart from his concerts in Europe, he is a regular visitor in Israel, Taiwan and in the United States. He has performed in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the De Doelen Rotterdam, the Royal College of Music London, the Frankfurter Alte Oper, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Palau de Musica Valencia, the Sydney Opera House, the Taipei National Concert Hall, the Teatro Principale de Rio de Janeiro and in the Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem, conducting ensembles like the Taipei Philharmonic Choir or the Orchestra Sinfonica de Rio de Janeiro. In May 2004 he was invited to Rio de Janeiro, and in November he made his debut in Tel Aviv as the conductor of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Zubin Mehta’s ensemble), in January 2005 he conducted the orchestra of I Pomeriggi Musicali. In 2006 he conducted the Orchestra di Extremadura, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Camerata, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. In 2007 he was invited by the orchestra of the Staatstheater in Kassel, and by the Quebec Symphony Orchestra.
He has been teaching courses of choral conducting since 1986 in Hungary and abroad: in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Taiwan and Israel. In 1995, he taught a course of conducting at the IFCM European Symposium in Ljubljana.

Music education has always had a prominent role throughout his career. His orchestra’s „Understanding Music” subscription series and the annual „Hungary is singing” series are both linked to his name. The latter series, looking back on a 25-year past, expanded in 2006 to include choirs from all over Hungary, not just Budapest, and give them an opportunity to perform together the great oratorical works. Following a three-day training camp, this ad-hoc choir of over 400 people performs at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.

In 2002 he was awarded the Knight Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic. In 2004 he received Hungary’s prestigious Franz Liszt Award.