Zoltán Székely ( Hungarian: Székely Zoltán; 8 December 1903 in

Kocs Kocs () is a village in Komárom-Esztergom county, Hungary. It lies west of Tata (Hungary), Tata and northwest of Budapest. A site of horse-drawn vehicle manufacture from the 1400s, the name is the source of the word ''carriage, coach'' and its e ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

– 5 October 2001 in Banff,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) was a Hungarian

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Biography

Székely studied violin with

Jenő Hubay Jenő Hubay von Szalatna ( ; 15 September 185812 March 1937), also known by his German name Eugen Huber (), was a Hungarian violinist, composer and music teacher. Early life Hubay was born into a German family of musicians in Pest, Hungary ...

and composition with

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (, ; , ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education. ...

at the Franz Liszt Academy in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. He composed mainly chamber music. Székely toured Europe with the virtuoso young cellist Paul Hermann. Székely was a friend of

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

and was the one to request the composition of Bartók's Second Violin Concerto and its dedicatee as well as performer at its premiere in March, 1939, Mengelberg conducting. The performance was a live broadcast and was recorded by Radio Hilversum on 78 RPM acetates, the most used recording medium at the time. For several years he lived in the Netherlands and from 1940–1941 he was leader/concertmaster of the

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (, ) is a Dutch symphony orchestra, established in 1888 at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). It is considered one of the world's leading orchestras. It was known as the Concertgebouw Orchestra u ...

under Willem Mengelberg. He later went to live in the USA and Canada. Zoltan Szekely joined the Hungarian String Quartet in its second year, and played the first violin from 1937 until the quartet disbanded in 1972. He was named Honorary Professor by the Franz Liszt Academy in 1981, which marked Bartók's centenary. Székely transcribed Bartók's ''

Romanian Folk Dances Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

'' for violin and piano.

References

External links

* 1903 births 2001 deaths Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni Academic staff of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music Hungarian composers Hungarian male composers Hungarian male classical violinists Concertmasters of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra 20th-century Hungarian classical violinists 20th-century Hungarian male musicians {{violinist-stub