Horváth, Bence

Bence was born in Budapest on 29 December 1973. He started his music studies at the Leó Weiner Music School with András Kis as his trumpet teacher, before continuing at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music with István Török. After completing secondary school he was admitted to the Trumpet Department of the Liszt Academy of Music, where he graduated in 1998 as a student of Frigyes Varasdy. He honed his musical skills between 1998 and 2000 at the Karlsruhe University of Music with Prof. Reinhold Friedrich, and also obtained a postgraduate degree. After returning home he successfully passed the entry examination to the 3-year PhD course at the Liszt Academy of Music. He defended his dissertation in 2006, which was entitled “Changes to the role of the trumpet in musical literature. During his studies he enjoyed outstanding achievements at several domestic and foreign music competitions: 1990: National Secondary School Competition - Miskolc, 2nd place 1991: Barch and Passau, 1st place with the brass quintet 1993: ITG Contest - Ohio (USA), finalist 1999: International Trumpet Competition - Pilisvörösvár, 2nd place and Best Performer’s Award for the performance of a piece by Kamillo Lendvay 2009: Special Award at the Sándor Végh competition He was able to learn from masters such as Maurice André, Marcus Stockhausen, Dr. Edward H. Tarr and Timofei Dokschitzer on domestic and international master courses. He has been the solo trumpetist of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra since 1999 and he also works as a music teacher. He was a trumpet teacher at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music in Budapest between 2005 and 2009, and has been teaching trumpet as a main subject and also chamber music as a university lecturer at the Music Faculty of Debrecen University since September 2008. In addition, he regularly teaches and holds courses at the Liszt Academy of Music. His students have won prizes at competitions on many occasions. Recently, in 2010, one of his students participating in a Bachelor course placed 2nd in the Brass and Percussion Instrumental Competition held annually in Debrecen. Several of his students, currently two, continue their studies at Master level, now in Belgium and in Spain. As a solo artist, he has performed on many stages abroad (incl. Bonn, Stuttgart, Moscow and Gothenburg). His Bonn performance has been recorded on CD entitled “Musicalische Talent Europas”. Hungarian audiences can listen to his music regularly as the solo trumpetist of the Budapest Filharmónia Kht. He also features as a soloist on the Filharmónia’s 50th anniversary CD. He performed his music composed for László Sáry in the Grand Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at his performer’s night. He was awarded the Annie Fischer Scholarship three times between 2000 and 2002. He received the Artisjus Performer’s Award for promoting and performing contemporary Hungarian music in 2000, 2006 as well as in 2010. In 2003 he performed Ferenc Farkas’ concerto, and in 2004, László Dubrovay’s Trumpet Concerto II in conjunction with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2004 at the International Music Festival on the Island of Elba he played on stage with world-famous performing artists such as Gidon Kremer and Jurij Bashemet. Bence Horváth performed Ervin Jereb’s Trumpet Concerto in the Béla Bartók Concert Hall of the Palace of Arts in 2005. In 2006 he was invited to Marcus Stockhausen’s trumpet quartet, and the Cologne-based WDR Radio recorded the band too. In November 2006 he performed a DLA concert organised by the Filharmónia, where he played several pieces of music composed for him, and he also defended his PhD dissertation. He played the trumpet solo of Zoltán Kovács’ Double Concerto for trumpet and trombone with the Debrecen Philharmonic Orchestra at the Palace of Arts in January 2007, while in March he performed the solo of Georg Friedrich Händel’s Suite in D major with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Grand Hall of the Music Academy. In 2010 he played on stage as the soloist of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He regularly plays in the NDR (North German Radio) Symphony Orchestra and the Budapest Festival Orchestra as well as bands such as UMZE, Intermoduláció and Componensebles.