Composer's Portrait: Peter Eötvös

There are not many contemporary composers who have successfully established themselves in the current theatre and concert scene. Peter Eötvös is one of the few who have succeeded.  His compositions are performed around the world with great success, and a total of 7 operas can be counted among the works of this Hungarian composer, who was born in Transsylvania in 1944.  At the early age of 14, Peter Eötvös became a student of Zoltán Kodály at the Music Academy in Budapest, and at the age of 16 his reputation as a theatre musician enabled him to finance his studies by composing music for films and children's musicals. At the age of  21, he was granted a scholarship at the „Musikhochschule“ (College of Music) in Cologne, was employed as a sound engineer in the electronic studio of the WDR (West German Radio) in Cologne, and soon afterwards began a collaboration with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Constantly searching for the „ideal mix of music and theatre“, Eötvös continued to further develop the musical language in his works. His opus comprises orchestral works, chamber music, operas, multi-media performances, incidental music and film sound tracks. His compositional style has been called „spherical“, „otherwordly“– and yet, at the same time, „pragmatic“. „Oscillating music for meditation“, yet „to the point“ and melodic, and without using any serial elements.