Béla Kovács (May 1, 1937 – November 7, 2021) was a Hungarian clarinetist.

Education

Kovács was born in

Tatabánya Tatabánya (; german: Totiserkolonie; sk, Banská Stará) is a city with county rights of 64,305 inhabitants in northwestern Hungary, in the Central Transdanubian region. It is the capital of Komárom-Esztergom County. Location The city is lo ...

, Hungary. He graduated from the

Franz Liszt Academy of Music The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary.

Performance career

Kovács was principal

clarinetist This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet. Classical clarinetists * Laver Bariu * Ernest Ačkun * Luís Afonso * Cristiano Alves * Michel Arrignon * Dimitri Ashkenazy * Kinan Azmeh * Alexander Bader * Carl Baerm ...

with the

Hungarian State Opera The Hungarian State Opera is the national opera company of Hungary. Located in Budapest, it is a busy institution, with over 200 operas each calendar year, on top of extensive educational programs, ballet, and musical theatre. The company employs ...

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

and the

Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra The Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra ( Hungarian: ''Budapesti Filharmóniai Társaság Zenekara'') is Hungary's oldest extant orchestra. It was founded in 1853 by Ferenc Erkel under the auspices of the Budapest Philharmonic Society. For many years i ...

since 1956, until he retired in 1981.

Teaching career

Kovács has been a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

of Clarinet at the

and at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popu ...

, Austria. He has composed a set of concert etudes for clarinet called "Hommages" that are written in the style of a number of different composers and are studied and/or performed widely today.

Compositions

''Hommages for Clarinet Solo'' * ''Hommage a J.S. Bach'' * ''Hommage a N. Paganini'' * ''Hommage a C.M. von Weber'' * ''Hommage a C. Debussy'' * ''Hommage a M. de Falla'' * ''Hommage a R. Strauss'' * ''Hommage a B. Bartók'' * ''Hommage a Z. Kodály'' * ''Hommage a A. Khachaturian'' Studies and Exercises * ''I Learn to Play the Clarinet 1'' * ''I Learn to Play the Clarinet 2'' * ''Everyday Scale Exercises'' Béla Kovács, Hommage á C.M. von Weber, Arsenije Marić, clarinete https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2UMLxMpSjg

References

Hommage à Zoltan Kodály for Solo Clarinet - Arsenije Marić https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZlZLeBi93Y

External links

Personal website
1937 births 2021 deaths Hungarian classical clarinetists People from Tatabánya 21st-century clarinetists {{Hungary-classical-musician-stub