JÂNOS FÜRST

Principal Conductor

Like a number of distinguished conductors, János Fürst began his musical career as a string player. He initially studied the violin at the Liszt Academy in his native Budapest and then at the Conservatory in Paris where he was awarded the Premier Prix. For the next decade János Fürst worked as an orchestra leader and in 1963 he founded the Irish Chamber Orchestra after which a full-time conducting career soon developed.

János Fürst has held posts as Chief Conductor and Music Director in Malmo, Aalborg, Dublin, Marseilles and Winterthur and was Chief Guest Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for a number of years. Since making his London debut in 1972, he has conducted all the major London Orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a regular guest in the major European capitals and with leading orchestras in Israel, in the USA, Australia and New Zealand where his Beethoven Cycle was an outstanding success. His performance of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in the final concert of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Bruckner Cycle was greeted with much acclaim.

In the operatic field, János Fürst spent nine years as Music Director of Marseilles Opera and has also been a regular Guest at the English National, Scottish Operas, and most recently at the Royal Stockholm Opera. Mr Fürst has succeeded in balancing his work in the concert hall with a passion for all forms of musical theatre. He conducted the Premier production of Peter Maxwell Davies’s full length Ballet Salome in Copenhagen which was subsequently recorded for EMI.

Recent and forthcoming engagements include the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Helsinki Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Halle Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, RTL Luxembourg, Orchestre National de Lyon, Netherlands Radio Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, to Australia, to conduct the Melbourne and Perth Symphony Orchestras and to Kuala Lumpur with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Amongst his busy schedule of engagements, János Fürst takes a very keen interest in the development of young musicians and he was Professor of Conducting Studies at the Paris Conservatoire for several years.