Composer Balogh Máté (*1990) has long been fascinated by cultures beyond Europe. So far, this interest has found expression in three works for mixed choir: Zulu Nights (2023), Arctic Dawn (2025), and Papuan Lunch (2026). Rather than being folk song arrangements in the traditional sense, these compositions are contemporary musical reflections inspired by the languages and texts of different cultures. Each work evokes a different distant world.

 

From 18 to 20 June 2026, the Institute for Musicology of the ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities hosted the International Musicological Conference on György Kurtág's 100th Birthday, one of the most significant scholarly events of the composer's centenary year.

When I wrote the words “K. M. hangjegy koenyvetskéje” ( M. K.’s Music Notebook ) on the title page, I thought about the “Notenbüchlein” that Johann Sebastian Bach compiled for his beloved wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. 
This notebook is our joint work, and it holds the memories and outcomes of the strength and inspiration I received from Márta, strength and inspiration that are so important to me.

“... I don't think I'm done composing yet...” These words, spoken not so long ago, reflect the wisdom and musical experience of the composer, whose 100th birthday this volume marks.

On November 18, the 75th anniversary of the founding of our company was celebrated with a concert at the House of Music in Budapest.

Is there an afterlife? Does our soul live on after death? Is there love that lasts beyond the grave? Although no one knows the answer, many people would answer yes, but even those who do not believe in this somehow hope that our lives do not end with our physical departure. It would be nice to know that when we leave this earthly world here, somewhere else we can meet our loved ones who have passed away and there we can wait for those whom it pained us to leave here. This hope is the subject of György Kurtág's new opera, which he began writing in 2023 to a libretto by Christoph Hein based on the letters and writings of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799).

 

Our former managing director István Homolya, musicologist, passed away on June 17, 2025, at the age of 85. His professional career was almost entirely linked to our company.

Máté Balogh visited the city in Alabama back in 2019 for the premiere of his march "Alabama March," composed for the state's 200th anniversary. In Huntsville Suite, he transformed his experiences from that time into an acoustic form, resembling a 'musical travel diary.'

For György Kurtág's 99th birthday, a CD has been released featuring his solo and piano accompaniment works for baritone voice, alongside songs by Schubert and Brahms. The composer wrote these introductory lines in the booklet of the recordings:
’Benjamin Appl came to the Budapest Music Centre for the first time in 2018, when we worked together on my Hölderlin-Gesänge.'

He began his career as one of the most important creators of the experimental art movement in Hungary. The majority of his works were written for classical instruments and ensembles, but some feature special sound sources such as a prepared piano, clay bells or even steam engines.