Gyula Csapó
Gyula Csapó hails from the rich Hungarian musical tradition. Beyond his Liszt Academy diploma (Budapest), he went to study to Ircam in Paris and completed his Ph.D. with Morton Feldman in the United States of America (1989). He taught at SUNY-Buffalo, McGill and Princeton Universities. He is Full Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Saskatchewan, and also holds a Habilitation Doctorate from the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Csapó received the 2009 ARTISJUS Prize “Composition of the Year” for his Concerto for Viola and a Changing Environment (recorded on Hungaroton, 2010), numerous grants and commissions such as his 2011 Canada Council Grant for the string quartet Déjà? Kojâ? commissioned by the Quatuor Bozzini. Csapó’s music is performed worldwide, (at venues like The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, New York, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam (with Continuum, Toronto, Canada), CBC Radio and the Montréal New Music Festival, Tessara Autumn Festival in Tokyo). The ARMEL Opera Festival and Competition made Csapó’s tetra-lingual opera Phèdre its entry work for international opera companies in 2014. Csapó published a large series of scores with Editio Musica and was selected to the roster of Universal Music, whose Contemporary Music Catalogue describes him as follows: “His music grew out of the minimalism of the 1970s, to which his early analytical minimalism, drone systems and timbral sensitivity responded by giving it a new dimension. Early exposure to the music of Cage, Feldman, Kurtág, Boulez, Stockhausen and Xenakis and the Budapest New Music Studio merely strengthened his pursuit of his own unmistakable path in works quintessentially Csapó without ever a reminiscence or a repeat. His career led him from Hungary through Paris to New York and Canada, and this trajectory endowed him with a truly global musical outlook that he carefully and consciously cultivates. His music, once heard, is impossible to forget due to its often timeless beauty, referencing multiple traditions while being exceptionally innovative; finding a voice for the general and the highly individual alike, and creating unique narratives and dramaturgies that embrace and mesmerize its listeners worldwide.” In 2014 Csapó became elected as a member of the prestigious Széchenyi Academy of Arts and Letters (Budapest, Hungary). The year 2015 will hear the world premiere of the complete quartet Déjà? Kojâ? Parts I-II-III, the European premieres of Tool az Óperencián (2012) and a new work Trilce V de César Vallejo (2014) for eight-stringed guitar and baritone voice with falsetto. More
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Gyula Csapó
Pápa (Hungary), 1955
Residence: Saskatoon (Saskatchewan, Canada)
- Composer