Máté Bella is one of the most promising composers of his generation. The dynamic beginning of his career has been marked by successes in competitions, commissions and prizes. His work exhibits a wide range of genres and styles as evidenced by his classical and entertainment music, opera, choral works, musicals, stage accompanying music, and pop music.

Biography

Máté Bella was born in Budapest on November 28th, 1985. His initial studies in composition took place at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music in Budapest under the direction of Miklós Kocsár (2002-2006). He then studied composition under Gyula Fekete at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music until his graduation in 2011, and in 2018 he earned a DLA degree. Since September 2012, he has been teaching at the Department of Composition at the Liszt Ferenc University of Music, currently as a senior lecturer. In 2016, he was among the founders of Studio 5, a contemporary music group.

Bella’s first major success as a composer came with his work Chuang Tzu’s Dream (2009) which won first prize in the chamber music category at the New Hungarian Music Forum in Budapest. In the following year, he won first place again in young composers category of the International Rostrum of Composers. He also won the same prizes in 2013 and 2014 with his composition Trance. In 2011 his accompanying music for a stage play, Pál Závada’s Hungarian Feast, earned him the Stage Critics’ Prize for the year’s best music for stage. His orchestral work, Lethe, was written in 2014 in response to a commission for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra’s 2015 Musica viva festival. His composition Hesperus was written in 2017 for the Ensemble intercontemporain and premiered in Paris in 2019. His one-act opera Frühling, Erwachen was performed in 2021 in Berlin in a collaboration of students from the UdK - Berlin and the ensemble unitedberlin.

His prizes and awards

Junior Prima Award (2010), Istvánffy Benedek Award (2010 and 2012), Ferenc Erkel Prize (2016), Bartók-Pásztory Prize (2019)

Photo: Vivien Farkas

Chamber ensemble

Hesperus (2017)
viola &  ensemble  Study score  Listen

Lethe (2014)
string orchestra  Study score  Listen

Trance (2013)
violin & ensemble Listen

Chuang Tzu's Dream (2008)
cello & ensemble  Listen

Chamber music

A csillagos ég alatt / Under the Starry Sky (2021)
bassoon, cello / 2  cellos & piano Listen

Aeolus (2021)
string quartet Listen

TITAN (2020)
tuba & piano

Phantasm (2013)
flute & piano

A pillangó álma / The Butterfly's Dream (2005)
cello & piano

Choral

Örök zene / Eternal music (2020)  Listen
mixed choir

Az otthon éjjel (2014) Listen
chlidren's choir