Peter Eötvös was born in Székelyudvarhely (Transsylvania) on 2 January 1944. At the age of 14 he was admitted to the Budapest Academy of Music by Zoltán Kodály. In 1966 a scholarship enabled him to study conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Between 1968 and 1976 he played regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble and collaborated with the electronic music studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne (1971-1979). Upon invitation of Pierre Boulez he conducted the inaugural concert of IRCAM in Paris in 1978 and was subsequently named musical director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, a post he held until 1991.

In 1980 Eötvös made his debut at the London PROMS. He became the Principal Guest Conductor of the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, BBC Symphony Orchestra (1985-1988), Budapest Festival Orchestra (1992-1995) and Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra (since 1998) as well as Principal Conductor of the Radio Chamber Orchestra Hilversum (since 1994). In 1991 he founded the International Peter Eötvös Institute for Young Conductors and Composers. From 1992 to 1998 he taught at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe, from 1998 to 2001 he was professor at the Cologne Musikhochschule. Since 2002 he has been teaching at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule again.

Eötvös has received numerous prizes, awards and distinctions, including the Hungarian Bartók Prize (1997), the German Christoph and Stephan Kaske Prize (2000), the Kossuth Prize of the Republic of Hungary (2002), the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award (2002) and the prize SACD Palmarès in the category ’Prix Musique’ (2002). Since 2000 Eötvös has been member of the Berlin Academy of Arts, the Szechenyi Academy of Arts in Budapest and the Saxon Academy of Arts in Dresden. In addition, he was named ’Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ (1988) and ’Commandeur de l`Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ (2003) by the French minister of education and cultural affairs. In 2004 Peter Eötvös was awarded the Cannes Classical Award in the category ’Best Living Composer’ at the MIDEM in Cannes. In 2007 he received the Frankfurt Music Award.

Peter Eötvös has achieved great international success with his most recent compositions. His works are performed by the most renowned ensembles throughout the world. His work zeroPoints(1999) was performed for the first time by the London Symphony Orchestra, IMA (2002) by the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and Jet Stream (2003) by the BBC Symphony Orchestra London. Eötvös collaborates with the most important radio symphony orchestras of Europe and, on an international level, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonia and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.

In recent years, Peter Eötvös has increasingly worked in the field of music theatre. Commissioned by the Festival International d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence in collaboration with the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, his second major opera Le Balconbased on the play by Jean Genet was performed for the first time with the Ensemble Intercontemporain with great success at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in July 2002. Another great success of Peter Eötvös was the world première of his new opera Angels in America based on the play of the same name by Tony Kushner which took place at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in November 2004, followed by performances in Hamburg (2005), Boston, Amsterdam (both 2006), Berlin (2007), Fort Worth/Texas (2008) and soon at the Opera of Frankfurt (2009).

Among Eötvös' most recent works is the violin concerto Seven which is a memorial for the Columbia Space Shuttle astronauts and was performed for the first time in September 2007 at the Lucerne Festival by violinist Akiko Suwanai and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under the direction of Pierre Boulez. In August 2008, the Glyndebourne Festival will see the world premiere of Eötvös' latest opera Love and Other Demons after Gabriel García Márquez.
 

• For information on the International Peter Eötvös Institute please contact
  
  Eötvös Institute
  Naarderweg 56 · NL-1261 BV Blaricum
  Fax: +31 (0) 35
  53 13 265
  E-Mail: eotvosp@hotmail.com
   

• Please visit Peter Eötvös' Website at www.eotvospeter.com.

 
Photo: © Andrea Felvégi