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Hungarian-born conductor, Gábor Hontvári, graduated with joint honours Bachleor of Music degree in choral and orchestra conducting from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest (2015), where he studied under professor András Ligeti, Ádám Medveczky, István Párkai and Valér Jobbágy. He obtained his Master of Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting from the highly esteemed Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar, under the direction of professor Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik (2015-2018). He is winner of the 7th Conducting Competition of Central-German Universities of Music, as well as prize-winner and recipient of the audience’s choice award at the Rezső Lantos Choral Conducting Competition.
Since 2016 Gábor Hontvári is scholarship holder of the German Music Council’s Dirigentenforum [Dirigentenforum des Deutschen Musikrates], an association which provides professional training and promotion for young talented conductors in German speaking countries. As outcome of a Dirigentenforum workshop, he was invited to work as assistant conductor for Andreas Schüller at Staatsoperette Dresden. In Germany, he regularly conducts the Jenaer Philharmonie, and has performed with the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, and Orchestra of Landestheater Detmold. In Hungary, he has worked on several occasions with the Győr Philharmonic, BM Duna, Capella Savaria and MÁV Symphonic Orchestra. He made his debut for the Staatsoperette Dresden [with Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld] in the spring of 2017, and conduct the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie in their upcoming tour in South-Korea. Meanwhile, he is also working with the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra based in his hometown.
Since September 2019, he is 1st Kapellmeister and Stellv. GMD at Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Germany.
His repertoire and artistic orientation are characterised by diversity. Besides works from the traditional symphonic repertoire, he has conducted hundreds of choral works, even operas such as Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel or Haydn’s L’isola disabitata. He was instructed in early music and historically informed performance practice at the workshops of Frieder Bernius, György Vashegyi and Alessandro De Marchi. Out of the wide variety of genres that feature in his repertoire, modern music has a special place: numerous young composers made their debut under his conducting. Furthermore he has participated in the contemporary music workshops of Péter Eötvös and Gergely Vajda. His conducting philosophy was also heavily influenced by Zsolt Hamar at the International Bartók Seminar and Festival 2016, as well as by the symphonic band and wind ensemble seminars of Professor László Marosi, the internationally renowned master of the genre. |
