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The American-born German guitarist, Franz Halász, stands in the forefront of outstanding artists in the guitar field. Judged by Soundboard Magazine in his New York debut as "simply electrifying!"and by Gramophone's critic as "the most remarkable guitarist in many years".
Since winning first prizes at the Andres Segovia Competition in Spain and the Seto Ohashi Competion in Japan in 1993, Franz Halász started an impressionating career.The orchestral dimension of his performances and the clarity and precision of his musical vision have rejoiced audiences between Tokyo and New York. A guest performer at major festivals and events such as the Rose Augustine Series-New York (USA), Toru Takemitsu Memorial Concert-Tokyo (Japan), Kissinger Sommer, Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte, Mecklenburg Vorpommern (Germany), Bath and Wirral (England), Santo Tirso (Portugal), Puerto Rico and Dell' Arte Series - Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), he also shared the stage with well known artists like Boris Pergamenschikov, Siegfried Jerusalem, Patrick Gallois, András Adorjan, Robert Aitken, Ingolf Turban,Wen-Sinn Yang, Hariol Schlichtig, Sebastian Hess and Alban Gerhard, among others.
Franz Halász stayed for many years as a Professor at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg and led there one of the most succesfully guitar classes in Europe. He also offers master classes at Institutes around the world including the Manhattan School of Music - New York, New England Conservatory- Boston, Royal Academy Stockholm, the Academy of Music-Oslo, Mozarteum Salzburg, Sao Paulo University, Esmuc in Barcelona and Musikene San Sebastian. Since October 2010 he is holding the chair for guitar at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, which was established for the first time in the long history of this renowned institution.
Franz Halász' many CD's for BIS - always rated as reference recordings - include among others the complete guitar music by Joaquin Turina and Toru Takemitsu. In his debut CD with Spanish guitar music he was praised by the prestigious critic Colin Cooper: "For the modern Spanish repertoire, Franz Halász is unsurpassed, able to deliver Turina's message as no one ever has before - no, not even the great Segovia." For Naxos Records, he was first presenting the complete works for guitar by Hans Werner Henze and also the original works by Ferdinando Carulli for guitar and piano. In 2014 there were released four CD's, including the Integral of the spanish composer Regino Sainz de la Maza (Naxos), a CD with Radames Gnattali ( BIS), Sofia Gubaidulina's Complete for Guitar (BIS) and finally a tribute to the spanish Fandango with works from Arcangelo Corelli, Boccherini, Soler, Granados, De Falla, Torroba and Rodrigo. The actual BIS-Album "Cancons i Danses Catalanes" includes works by Mompou, Manen and Llobet.
In 2007 Franz Halász was awarded with the prestigious "Bavarian Culture Prize" by the State of Bavaria for his work as a performer and teacher. In 2015 he received for "Alma Brasileira" the Latin GRAMMY -Award of the Grammyfoundation as "Best Classical Album". |
