Distinguished composer Péter Eötvös dies at the age of 80

Distinguished composer Péter Eötvös dies at the age of 80. Photo: MTI

Celebrated Hungarian composer and conductor Péter Eötvös has died, his family told MTI.

Eötvös, an eminent personality of the Hungarian and international contemporary music scene, died on Sunday after a long illness at 80.

Born in 1944 in Transylvania’s Odorheiu Secuiesc (Székelyudvarhely), Eötvös was admitted at the age of 14 to the Budapest Liszt Music Academy‘s class for outstanding talents by Zoltán Kodály. He later studied conducting on a scholarship in Cologne.

After 1967, he worked abroad on assignments in Cologne, Paris, and London and was a conductor of the Berlin, Munich, London, and Vienna symphonic orchestras over the past several decades.

He composed several operas, madrigals, and orchestra works and wrote scores for theatre and cinema.

His last opera, Valuska, written for Hungarian scores, had its premiere in Budapest on December 2 last year.

Budapest, 14 March 2024. Ann-Yi Bingöl, daughter of Péter Eötvös, receives the Kossuth Grand Prize on behalf of her father on the occasion of the anniversary of the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence in the Dome Hall of the Parliament on 14 March 2024. Photo: MTI

Eötvös received the Hungarian state’s highest award, the Kossuth Grand Prize, for his lifetime achievement of “epochal significance” in 2024.