Gregory Vajda was hailed a “young titan”
by the Montreal Gazette after conducting the
Montreal Symphony in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s
Castle and Schoenberg’s Erwartung. He has fast
become one of the most sought-after conduc
tors on the international classical music scene.
In accordance with his growing presence and
demand in North America, he was, in 2011,
appointed the sixth music director of the Hunts
ville Symphony Orchestra. As composer and
conductor, he has been appointed resident artist
of the new music ensemble Ars nova in France,
which runs from 2021 until 2023. In 2014, after
concluding his 3-year tenure as principal conductor, he was named principal
guest conductor of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is also the
artistic director of the new music ensemble UMZE, Program Director of the
Péter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, and musical director for the
Portland Festival Symphony. He was awarded the Gundel Arts Prize in 2001, the
Bartók–Pásztory Award in 2018 as well as the Artisjus Performing Arts Award,
and was elected a full member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts
in 2019. The Berlin Arts University gave a full-blown production of his opera,
Georgia Bottoms, in July 2021. He conducted his own concert music for the silent
film, The Crowd, at the Auditorium of the Louvre in 2001. His third opera, Magic
Mountain, was composed for and performed twice as part of the Davos Festival
anniversary season in 2010. Georgia Bottoms, a Comic Opera of the Modern
South, was premiered in 2015 by the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. His work,
Drums Drums Drums, for three percussionists and orchestra received its World
Premiere with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony in May 2017. In 2018, his one-act
opera, Barbie Blue, premiered at the Budapest Opera as part of the “Bluebeard’s
Castle 100” Festival. In 2020, the UMZE Ensemble premiered his monoconcert-opera, Transporters, based on a book by famed author Péter Eszterházy.
V
STAGE WORKS
The Giant Baby (2001/2018–2019), 4 singers, chr., 9 instr. Lib: Composer,
Péter Horváth (after Tibor Déry)
Barbie Blue (2006), S, Bar, symph. orch. Lib: András Almási-Tóth SR: BMC CD202
Magic Mountain (2010), 7 singers, 14 instr. Lib: Bettina Geyer (after Thomas
Mann)
Georgia Bottoms – A Comic Opera of the Modern South (2012–2014/2017),
11 singers, 19 instr. Lib: Composer (after Mark Childress)
Fuharosok/Transporters – Mono-Concert-Opera (2019), MS/3 female voices,
15 instr. Lib: Composer (after Péter Eszterházy)
ORCHESTRAL WORKS
Dűvő/Duevoe (2004/2007), symph. orch. SR: HCD 32577
Dűvő/Duevoe (2010), symph. orch.
Csárdás Obstiné – Homage to Ferenc Liszt (2011), pno., symph. orch.
Drums Drums Drums (2014–2015), timp, drumset, concert bass drum,
symph. orch. Pub: UMP EMB
Clarinet Symphony (2015–2016), 2 cl., symph. orch. SR: BMC CD 274
Rough and Ready – An American Outdoor Overture (2017), symph. orch.
Szomorú vasárnap variációk/Gloomy Sunday Variations (2018), symph. orch.
Pub: UMP EMB
ENSEMBLE
Le tombeau de Messiaen – Prelude (1994), fl., cl., harp., str. quartet
Hypertext (2001), ens. Pub: UMP EMB
Gulliver in Faremido (2010), narr., 5 instr. Lib: Composer, David Hill
(after Frigyes Karinthy) SR: BMC CD 202
From Left to Right (2019), sax., vla., acoustic guitar, perc., pno.
CHAMBER WORKS
Non-Figurative (1997), speaking perc. quartet
Three Pantomimes (1997), fl., cl. SR: HCD 32577
Turning (1998), sax. quartet SR: HCD 32577
Tin Opera (1998), brass quintet/perc.
La foule/The Crowd (2001), pno., upright pno., 2 perc. [To be performed
only with the Silent Movie ‘The Crowd’ by King Vidor]
Five Phenomena (2005), str. quartet
Conversations with Children (2008), fl./A fl., cl./B cl., vl., vlc., pno. SR: BMC
CD 202
Alice Études (2017), cl., str. quartet Pub: UMP EMB SR: BMC CD 274
Dome (2017), fl., vla.
Captain Hume’s Last Pavin (2018), vlc., scordatura, with or without recitation
Troccata (2019), tr., pno.
Further Conversations with Children (2020), fl., cl., celesta
Fairytale Endings – Hommage à Robert Schumann (2020), cl., pno.
Drop Shadow (2021) [Work in Progress], 2 perc.
VOCAL WORKS
The Cloak, The Boat, and The Shoes (2016), (M)S, symph. orch. Lib: W. B.
Yeats Pub: UMP EMB
L’ analphabète (2020), S, 9 instr. Lib: Ágota Kristof
Nyitó ∞, Záró ∞/Opening ∞, Closing ∞ – In memoriam Zoltán Jeney (2020),
2 MS Lib: Dezső Tandori
Under-Song (2020), 2 singers of the same voice-type, perc. self-accomp.
Lib: Lola Ridge
The Music Gene (2020–2021) [Work in Progress], S, narr., ens. Lib: Rick Myers
SOLO WORKS
Permanent Dreams (1991/2017), cl. Pub: UMP EMB SR: BMC CD 274
Lightshadow-Trembling (1993), cl. Pub: UMP EMB SR: BMC CD 202
Souvenir from Toggenburg – Based on a Schubert Song (2005), pno.
Void (2011), pno.
Sol-Étude (2014), pno.
Accompaniment Without a Song (2019), pno.
