Artistic Director: Huba Hollókői
Welcome
“Music ennobles people; it teaches what is in ever shorter supply in the world: goodness, faith and humanity.”
András Keller’s thoughts could hardly be more timely than in our hurried world today. In the flashing whirl of clicks, likes and short videos, the human being slowly disappears, and reason and emotion flatten; there is a danger that humanity will slowly become unable to understand, experience and take in the world around it more deeply. Despite the lightning-fast internet connection and even the best headphones or speakers, none of them can convey the wonderful, natural vibration of instruments and voices sounding together, the pulsing waves of a stage performance.
Since Kodály we have known that a child’s musical education should begin nine months before birth. More than a century ago he began to fight for the place that classical music and music education deserve. In his own words: it is far more important who the singing teacher is in Kisvárda than who the director of the Opera House is. Since then, as the world has accelerated, music’s counterpointing role has become ever more valued, because it is also a fact: without music there is no complete human being.
That is why it was a particularly great joy and honour for me to be invited to lead the Kecskemét Symphony Orchestra, in the hometown of Zoltán Kodály. I consider it extremely important that a city of this size and character has a high-quality, versatile and innovative ensemble that at once represents the Kodály heritage and is able to respond to the challenges of our time. Besides this cultural mission, the Kecskemét Symphony Orchestra can be a brand that, in the international language of music, enhances the city’s reputation nationwide and abroad. Our aim is therefore that at the programmes of the Kecskemét Symphony Orchestra – whether a symphonic or chamber concert, a workshop or a co-production – time “stands still” for a moment, and the audience, small or big, old or young, retired or busy businessperson, leaves the auditorium recharged, deepened and electrified by new thoughts and experiences.”
Huba Hollókői began his music studies at the age of four, first getting to know the violin, and later turned towards conducting. After graduating from the Academy of Music he continued his studies in Finland, where he earned his conducting diploma in 2012 at the Sibelius Academy in the classes of Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula; he also holds a master’s degree from the Dutch National Master Orchestral Conducting programme, where he was a student of Jac van Steen, Kenneth Montgomery and Ed Spanjaard.
As both a violinist and a conductor he has received numerous awards at significant Hungarian and international competitions, including the János Koncz Violin Competition and the 2019 2nd Città di Brescia – Giancarlo Facchinetti International Conducting Competition. He was one of the three young conductors to reach the final of the 53rd Besançon International Conducting Competition in 2013. Several prestigious honours have supported his career: in 2014 he received the Anton Kersjes Fonds conducting scholarship, and in 2019 the scholarship of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
As a conductor he has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras and soloists, including the Netherland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Residentie Orkest, the Noord Netherland Orchestra, the Slovak Sinfonietta, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester and the OSUG Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. His soloist partners have included Barnabás Kelemen (violin), Balázs Fülei (piano), Guido Schiefen (cello) and Hugo Manzanilla Victoria (clarinet). In 2017 he made his debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as guest conductor of the Philharmonie Südwestfalen. In the same year he was also able to work with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, regarded as one of the most important orchestras in the world, as assistant to conductor Semyon Bychkov.
A dozen world premieres of modern works are linked to his name; he has conducted at the Iubiți Muzica Româneasca! festival in Oradea, with the UMZE ensemble in Budapest, and he was able to conduct the premiere of Monique Krüs’s opera Anne Frank in the Netherlands and in Tirana. His opera productions have received much praise from both audiences and critics. His repertoire includes Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Beethoven’s Fidelio, as well as Mozart’s popular masterpieces: The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni (Netherlands, DNOA company). In 2021 he also introduced himself as an opera director, staging Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love.
Between 2015 and 2017 he was assistant conductor of the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, where he worked closely with internationally renowned conductors such as Markus Stenz, Bernard Haitink, Edo de Waart, John Adams and Vladimir Jurowski, and with several world-famous singers and instrumental soloists. During this time he also conducted the productions of Dutch National Ballet’s Hague company for two seasons.
He has conducted many times in Hungary as well, performing as conductor of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra, the Danubia Symphony Orchestra, the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra and the Budapest Strings. In the 2020–2021 season he was invited to conduct the Győr Symphony Orchestra and the Kecskemét Symphony Orchestra as well.
As a violinist he also frequently performs; outside Hungary he has played in England, Germany, Italy, Finland, Austria, the Netherlands and Japan. In 2010 he played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with great success under the baton of Eiji Oue at the NDR Musiktag – Hannover festival. He has also appeared at several other well-known international events, such as Young Hungarian Talents in Focus – London, Herbstliche Musiktage – Bad Urach and Musica Nova – Helsinki.
Over the past decade he has taken part in the masterclasses of Kurt Masur, Johannes Schläefli, Zoltán Peskó, Atso Almila and Yuri Simonov, among others. He is the organiser of the MasterclassBudapest masterclasses, where he also teaches as assistant to the Finnish professor Jorma Panula.