Juries

Piano

Dr. Dávid Báll

・Associate Professor
・Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music

Dr. Báll Dávid is one of the habilitated piano professors of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. In 2023 he was appointed as a visiting professor of the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in China. A three-time Fischer Annie Scholarship winner pianist, awarded also the Magyary Zoltán Postdoctoral Scholarship, Hungarian Republic Award, Universitas and Ari Kupsus fellowship. He has given concerts in the greatest halls of Europe, North- and South-America and Asia, such as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Albert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Salle Pleyel, Teatro Colón and ElbPhilharmonie. He gave masterclasses in Poland, Georgia, Latvia, Estonia, Italy, Vietnam and China.

In 2015 he has played the Piano Concerto by Schönberg at the season opening concert of the Hungarian National Philharmonic, led by Zoltán Kocsis, and he has been a partner of world-famous musicians such as Iván Fischer, János Kovács, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Heinz Holliger and Klaus Thunemann. Dr. Báll made recordings for Channel Classics, Toccata Classics and Hunnia Records.

Dr. Katalin Falvai

・Associate professor
・Liszt Academy of Music

Katalin Falvai was born in Budapest, Hungary, into a family of musician.
Her father and mother are also pianists.

She is seven, when starts piano-lessons officially, and nine, when she is admitted to
Franz Liszt Music Academy, „Class for Especially Talented Children”. Her teachers were Edit Hambalkó and Zsuzsa Esztó.
The same year she wins the National Piano Competition in Hungary,
and the Bach-Handel-Scarlatti Competition.

From the age of 18 she continues her studies in the university class of the
Liszt Academy, with professors György Nádor, Kálmán Dráfi, Ferenc Rados, Béla Simon
and chamber music professors Márta Gulyás and Sandor Devich.
In 1997 she is selected for the scholarship of the Banff Centre for the Arts,
Canada, where she spent four month as Artist in Residency, and gave concerts.
After her master-diplome, she is admitted to do doctorate-studies for
the title „The Doctor of Liberal Arts ”,where she is working under the
guidance of Zoltán Kocsis.

In the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, she gets the Annie Fischer Prize.
She worked in masterclasses with professors like: Dmitrij Bashkirov,
Michail Voskresenskij, Jacque Rouvier, Andrea Bonatta, Noel Flores, Livia Rev,
László Simon, Anton Cuerti, Tamas Ungár, etc…

Katalin Falvai gave concerts in Hungary and abroad:
Germany- Stuttgart, Berliner Konzerthaus, France /Paris/, Sweden, Finland /Helsinki/, Moscow, Siberie, The Netherlands, Marocco, London,
Italy, Rumanie /Bucarest/, Austria, Prague, Albanie,USA, Canada, The Sultanate of Oman, etc…..
She appeared on stage with musicians such as Zoltán Kocsis, Tamas Vasary , Jenő Jandó and Maria Teresa Uribe.

In 2004 they founded a piano trio with violinist Sandor Javorkai and cellist
Adam Javorkai, they toured over Europe and Asia.
/Moscow, Moscow Spring Chamber Music Festival, Allegretto Albania Chamber Music
Festival-Tirana, Durres, Hanti-Mansijsk- Siberia, Helsinki – Rocky Church, Austria –
Wien – Chopin Festival, Kirchstetten – Schloss Kirchstetten Festival, Germany,
Italy – Cremona, Cervo (Sandor Végh Festival), Milano, Florence, Maiori, etc….

Katalin Falvai plays from the whole piano and chamber music repertoire,
but she especially likes to play the pieces of russian composers.
In 2008 november she played the two Concertos of Dmitrij Shostakovich,
with the Miskolc Symphonic Orchestra, the conductor was Zoltán Kocsis.

Prof. Dr. Judit Gábos

・Hungarian concert pianist

・piano professor at the Music Institute of Eszterházy Károly Catholic

University of Eger. In 2003 received DMA in piano performance from the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and in 2012 obtained a habilitation also in piano performance from the Liszt Academy. Played numerous live solo and chamber music recitals at the Hungarian Radio. In Europe gave orchestral, solo and chamber music concerts in Belgium, Finland, Serbia, Spain, Romania. Guest professor and Fulbright grantee at universities in the United States, also toured the US several times. Outside Europe and the North American continent, also performed in Indonesia, Brazil, India, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile.

Strings

Dr. Ádám Banda

・Associate professor
・Head of the Violin Department

・Liszt Academy of Music

He was born in 1986 in Balassagyarmat. At the age of 13, he was selected to enter the Preparatory Class for Extraordinary Young Talents of Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy of Music as a student of professor Eszter Perényi. His diploma concert was in October 2009 in the Grand Hall of Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and he received his diploma in June 2010.

He won numerous national and international competitions, including the 1st prizes of two Hungarian national violin competitions in 1998, the Ferenc Halász Prize in 2001, the 1st Prize and Grand Prize of the Ede Zathureczky National

Violin Competition and the absolute First Prize of the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition in 2003. He received the Pro Europe Award in 2004. He won the second prize and the jury’s special prize at the Yampolsky International Violin Competition in Moscow in 2006. He won the first prize of both the Dénes Legány Competition and the Szigeti-Hubay International Violin Competition in Budapest, where he was also awarded with the Hubay Special Prize in 2007.

He was honored with two major national awards, the Junior Prima Primissima and the Artisjus Award in 2007, and received the Hungarian government’s prize for outstanding young talents – Youths of March Award – in 2009. He won the Grand Prix of ECHO Rising Stars in 2011, which has earned him the possibility of appearing in the most prestigious concert halls of Europe in the 2012/13 season. In 2012, he received the Hungarian Bronze Cross of Merit.

Since 2012, he has been teaching at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and also has been invited to teach on masterclasses in several places. In 2018, he received a doctorate at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. So far, he has had concerts throughout Europe as well as in the US, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Japan, with many renowned artists, including Zoltán Kocsis, András Schiff, Miklós Perényi, Pinchas Steinberg and Péter Frankl.

Dr. Judit Szabó

・Senior lecturer
・Liszt Academy of Music

CHAMBER MUSIC DEPARTMENT, SCHOOL FOR EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG TALENTS Chamber Music, String Quartet Academic degree, university position: DLA, senior lecturer.

Major jury members:
Tokyo, Kioi Hall, 2012
London, Wigmore Hall, 2012
Washington, Library of Congress, 2013
Chicago, Mandel Hall, University of Chicago, 2013
Montreal, Pollack Hall, McGill University, 2013
Vienna, Konzerthaus, 2014
Buenos Aires, Teatro Colon, 2014
Nantes, “La folle Journee”, 2015
Budapest, Liszt Academy Grand Hall “Legendary concerts”, 2015 Shanghai, Symphony Hall, 2016
Manchester, RNCM Concert Hall, 2017
Veszprém, “Auer Festival”, 2017
Fertőd, Esterházy Castle, 2017
Padova, Sala dei Giganti, 2017
Budapest, Liszt Academy Grand Hall, 2018
Pannonhalma, “Arcus Temporum”, 2018
Budapest Liszt Academy Solti Hall, 2018
Salzburg, Schloss Mirabell, 2019
Budapest, Festetics Palace, 2019

Dr. Bence Asztalos

・Head of the Music Institute

・Eszterházy Károly Catholic University

Prof. Dr. Bence Asztalos studied violin and singing at the Liszt Academy Budapest,

continuing his education in the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien in K.S.

Robert Holl’s Lied-class. He holds DLA doctorate degree and habilitation.

Mr. Asztalos has played in the violin section of the Budapest Festival Orchestra (GMD Iván

Fischer) since 1994, working with conductors, such as Sir Georg Solti, Charles Dutoit, Kurt

Sanderling etc. He has performed with the ensemble at the most important concert venues on

the international music scene, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the

Musikverein in Vienna, the Royal Albert Hall and Barbican Center in London, and the

Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Regularly returning guest at the Salzburger Festspiele,

Edinburgh International Festival, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms. He has contributed

to more than 50 recordings for Channel Classics, Philips, Teldec, Decca, A passionate

performer and advocate for chamber music, founding member of the Aztalos-Szabó-Báll

Piano Trio. Chamber music audiences have heard Mr. Asztalos in performances throughout

the Wiener Konzerthaus, leading concert halls of Japan and many more venues. He has been a

featured artist on several radio and television broadcasts (MezzoTv, Arte).

Mr. Asztalos’ singing career allowed him to develop close relations with the Deutsche Oper

am Rhein Düsseldorf and the Hungarian State Opera, where he sang Don Fernando/Fidelio,

Ariodates/Xerxes, Bartolo/Figaro etc. As an opera and lied/oratorio singer he has recorded

with Teldec, Hungaroton, Bongiovanni and Warner.

In 2010 he was appointed as associate professor at the University of Szeged Department of

Music, and in 2019 he was appointed as the head of the Music Institute of the Eszterházy

Károly Catholic University in Eger.

Wind

László Gulyás

Deputy Mayor of Eger

László Gulyás is the Deputy Mayor of Eger in charge of cultural affairs. He is also the

director and trumpet teacher at the Ferenc Farkas Music School in Eger. In addition,

he is a member of the Eger Symphony Orchestra, the music ensemble of the

Gárdonyi Géza Theater in Eger and Snidero Jazz Quartet.

Vocal