Applicants to the composer's round of the Bartók World Competition 2020 only had to submit the score of their competition pieces as the competition takes place online, anonymously until the Gala Concert.
The submitted works are judged in two rounds. The works submitted until the end of the application deadline were sent to the pre-selection jury consisting of professors from the Liszt Academy. The panel met on September 4 to select the 15 pieces that will then be forwarded to the international jury. Due to the great number of the high quality works they had selected 17 instead of 15.
Members of the pre-selection jury chaired by Gyula Fekete:
Máté Bella
Máté Bella graduated from the Liszt Academy in 2011 with a degree in Music Composition, as the student of Gyula Fekete. He is one of the founding members of STUDIO 5, a group of contemporary music composers established in 2016. He received his “summa cum laude” DLA PhD degree in 2018. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer at the Liszt Academy; in addition, he is a member of the Artisjus Committee of Classical Music Critics, the Association of Hungarian Composers and the composer section of the Hungarian Film Academy Association.
Several Hungarian and international orchestras perform his works, his theatrical accompaniments can be heard in the Hungarian National Theatre, the Vígszínház, the Budapest Operetta Theatre, the Budapest Puppet Theatre and the Hungarian State Opera. The Junior Prima Award, the Erkel Ferenc Award and the Bartók–Pásztory Award are the most outstanding amongst his competition achievements and awards.
Zsolt Serei
Zsolt Serei is a composer, conductor and an Associate Professor at the Liszt Academy. His college studies lasted from 1973 to 1983; he studied composition with Endre Szervánszky, Emil Petrovics and Zoltán Jeney; his professors of orchestral conducting were András Kórodi, Ervin Lukács and Albert Simon. From 1978, he was a member of the New Music Studio. He founded the Componensemble instrumental group in 1989, which has become one of the most significant venues for contemporary music in Hungary by now. He has taught composition, 20th-century compositional practice and contemporary music at the Liszt Academy since 1986. His achievements were acknowledged with the Erkel Ferenc, the Artisjus and the Bartók–Pásztory Award.
Péter Tornyai
Péter Tornyai is a composer and chamber musician. In 2012, he graduated from the Liszt Academy with a degree in Music Composition, as the student of Zoltán Jeney. He was a student of the Doctoral School of the Liszt Academy from 2013. He has been teaching at the Composition Department since 2015 and he has been an assistant lecturer since 2019.
Tornyai is the artistic director of the Anima Musicae Contemporary Music Workshop and a founding member of the CentriFUGA Contemporary Music Workshop as well as the Hermina Gallery – art and music group. He has won several composition competitions, his works have been performed in many concert halls around Europe and the United States.
János Vajda
Composer János Vajda has won the Erkel, the Bartók–Pásztory and the Kossuth Awards; he is a retired Associate Professor of the Liszt Academy. Between 1970 and 1975, he studied composition with Emil Petrovics and conducting with István Párkai. He finished his postgraduate studies in Amsterdam. Vajda is a versatile composer; his grand orchestral and chamber works as well as his compositions for choir and solo instruments are often featured on the programmes of Hungarian performers. He is one of the most important representatives of contemporary Hungarian opera. He has released more than a dozen recordings at Hungaroton. He has taught composition, orchestration and classical composition classes at the Liszt Academy since 1981.
Members of the international jury are:
