Soloist

István Kovács

The Hungarian bass István Kovács studied initially at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Pécs and then continued his studies in Budapest and Zurich with Lászlo Polgár and in Venice with Sherman Lowe. The prize-winner of countless competitions (including the International Francesco Viñas Competition in Barcelona in 1998, the ARD Competition in Munich in 1998 and the Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1999) started his stage career at the Teatro Regio in Turin, where he appeared on stage as Trulove (»The Rakeʼs Progress«), Haly (»L’italiana in Algeri«) and Raimondo (»Lucia di Lammermoor«).

Further engagements took István Kovács as Raimondo, as Guglielmo (»Così fan tutte«), Sarastro (»Die Zauberflöte«) and in the title role of »Don Giovanni« to the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, as Publio (»La clemenza di Tito«) and Appollonio (Cestis »Tito«) to the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, as Timur (»Turandot«) to the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, as Selim (»Il turco in Italia«) to the St Moritz Opera Festival, as Bluebeard (»Herzog Blaubarts Burg«) to the Teatro Communale di Bologna and to Istanbul and Tokyo, as Bluebeard and the Monster (Ibert's »Persée et Andromede«) to the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, as 2nd Esquire (»Parsifal«) to the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, in the title role of Rossini's »Maometto II« to the Theater Bremen and as Lord Sidney (»Il viaggio a Reims«) to the opera houses of Avignon, Bordeaux, Reims, Toulouse, Marseilles, Bordeaux and Montpellier.

In addition, he sang the role of Bluebeard in a film production for Hungarian television. Many concert appearances have taken the bass through the whole of Europe, including Stuttgart, the Salzburg Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. During this time, he has worked with orchestras such as the Mozarteum Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Bayerischer Rundfunk, the SWR Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and with conductors such as Heinz Holliger, William Christie, Helmuth Rilling, Ivor Bolton and Herbert Blomstedt.