Composer Sándor Szokolay passed away on 8 December 2013 at the age of 83. Members of his family, students and admirers bid their final farewell in the Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Cemetery in the town of Sopron on 21 December.

Sándor Szokolay was born in Kunágota (in the southeast of Hungary) on 30 March, 1931. He studied composition with Ferenc Szabó and Ferenc Farkas at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music between 1950 and 1957. While still studying, he taught solfege in the framework of the Budapest Music School Organization. From 1955 to 1961 he was member of the editorial staff of the Hungarian Radio, then he was working as a freelance composer for some years. From 1966 to his retirement in 1994 he was professor of composition, counterpoint, and prosody at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. He also took the position of music reader of the Hungarian Television between 1977 and 1988. He has actively participated in the activity of severalorganizations, among them the Hungarian Kodály Society, the Hungarian Music Chamber, the Hungarian National Foundation and the Hungarian Radio Foundation.