Benedek Horvath, Sinfonieorchester Basel & Hans Drewanz
Biography Benedek Horvath, Sinfonieorchester Basel & Hans Drewanz
Benedek Horvath
is an integral part of the Swiss celebrations of Bernstein at 100 in a theatrical setting of the 2nd Symphony “Age of Anxiety” in Vevey this November. He also is currently working on his second solo album for the French label Artalinna. The CD, which will be released in 2019, is featuring a program of folk-music inspired pieces by Janáček, Bartók and Kurtág.
Together with his trio, Trio Eclipse, he just toured Jordan, where they not only gave concerts but cooperated with The Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development that gives refugee children the opportunity to meet with different forms of culture. In Summer 2019 the Trio Eclipse debut at the prestigious Lucerne Festival presenting a program including Beethoven, Brahms, Thomas Demenga and Gershwin.
Benedek will be awarded by Junior Prima prize in Budapest this November. It is one of the most important prize for young artists in Hungary, only few receives it every year.
In 2017 Benedek gave his debut at New York’s Merkin Hall performing Liszt’s 2nd Concerto. Other recent highlights include Mozart's Piano Concerto K459 together with Theodor Guschlbauer and the Musikkollegium Winterthur, at the Tonhalle Zurich as well as Liszt's "Totentanz" at the Stadtcasino Basel with the Basel Symphony Orchestra.
Performing as a soloist, Benedek has worked together with the Montenegro Symphony Orchestra, the Real Filharmonía of Galicia, the Szeged Symphony Orchestra to name just a few. His recitals took him to various European cities, such as Paris, Vienna (broadcasted live on ORF Radio), Gstaad Festival, Milan, Rome, Krakow, the National Opera House in Tirana (Albania) and the National Theatre in Pogdorica (Montenegro).
Benedek is a laureate of the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition (Santander 2012) and recent winner of the Kiefer Hablitzel Competition (Bern) and Rahn Musikpreis (Zürich). He won Laurate prize at the Klara Haskil Competition in 2016. Some other prizes include the: 1st Prize Isidor Bajic International Piano Competition, 3rd Prize Béla Bartók International Piano Competition, "Grand Prize" György Ferenczy Chopin Piano Competition.
He is holding a Soloist Diplom from Basel Music Academy and worked together numerous renowned artists such as András Schiff, Dimitri Bashkirov, Menahem Pressler, Claudio Martínez Mehner, Ferenc Rados and Zoltán Kocsis.
As a passionate chamber music player, he has performed at the Cully Classique Festival, Santander Festival. Furthermore, chamber music highlights include playing with internationally renowned Casals String Quartet and Zakar Bron. With his Trio Eclipse, he was a prize winner of the International Osaka Chamber Music Competition. Their concerts in Switzerland are broadcasted regularly on Swiss Radio SRF2.
At the age of 13, Benedek recorded his first CD with the MATAV Symphony Orchestra, performing two piano concertos by the Armenian-American composer Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee, who later on dedicated several pieces to him. In 2016, he recorded a solo program with works by Liszt and Bartókfor the French label Artalinna.
Benedek does not only play the piano but also the violin and various percussion instruments. As a teenager he had also a band to enlarge his knowledge in different segments of the music. He is also very interested in photography and a keen photographer himself.
