Ernő Sebestyén

Ernő Sebestyén (* 1940 in Budapest ) is a Hungarian violinist . Among other things, he was first concertmaster of several orchestras and is a professor emeritus at the University of Music and Theater in Munich .

Life

Sebestyén began playing the violin at the age of four and, as a child prodigy, was admitted to the Franz Liszt Music Academy at the age of nine . His teachers there included Zoltán Kodály and Leó Weiner . At the age of 23 he became concert master of the Hungarian State Opera.

From 1965 to 1970, Sebestyén taught as a professor at his old university and founded the Sebestyén Quartet, named after him, in 1966, which won prestigious prizes in its early years and has survived without him under the name Kodály Quartet since 1970 . In 1970 he became first concertmaster of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, from 1971 to 1981 he worked in the same function at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at that time also had a teaching position at the Berlin University of the Arts . In addition to these tasks, Sebestyén directed the Chamber Orchestra of the German String Soloists Berlin and was artistic director of the Philharmonic Virtuoso Berlin since 1983.

From 1980 to 1991 Sebestyén was first concertmaster with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and lived in Eichenau . He was also the first violinist in the Katsaris piano quintet and in the Camerata Slovenica and taught a violin class at the Leopold-Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg . In 1988 he started teaching again at the University of Music and Theater in Munich, where he became full-time professor for violin in 1990, a position he held until his retirement in 2005.

In addition to his teaching activities, Sebestyén has continued to emerge as a chamber musician and soloist, who performed violin concertos by Bach , Bartók , Beethoven , Brahms , Dvořák and others with well-known conductors and orchestras. He can be heard on the recordings of numerous classical labels.

Honors

• 1969: Franz Liszt Prize (Budapest)
• 1989: Viotti D'oro Prize ( Vercelli )
• 1992: Maltese Cross ( Genoa )
• 1999: Béla Bartók Medal (Budapest)

source

• Hungarian Institute Munich , last accessed March 3, 2008