conductor

Mátyás Antal was born in 1945 in Budapest. He graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music in 1970 in choral conducting, and in 1971 as a flautist. In 1980-81 he studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in Brussels. From 1967 to 1990 he was a flautist in the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, in addition to which he regularly played chamber music, and organized the Antal Flute Quintet, which gave the premieres of many new works.

His work as a conductor began in the 1970s. From 1974 he worked as second conductor in the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra, then from 1984 to 1986 he led the Székesfehérvár Chamber Orchestra (now the Alba Regia Symphony Orchestra). From 1986 to 2000 he was conductor of the Austro-Hungarian ensemble Pro Brass. From 1984 to 2002 he worked as choral director of the Budapest Chorus, and from 1986 to 1991 as the teaching conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra. From 1985 for more than 25 years he was the director of the State (now National) Chorus. From 2017 he has been a guest choral conductor for the Slovak Philharmonic Choir.

In 2018  he became artistic director and chief conductor of the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra, work that he continues to this day.

He is a committed performer of new Hungarian music. He regularly conducts evenings dedicated to one of the excellent Hungarian composers (Durkó, Bozay, Dubrovay, Madarász, Szokolay, Szőllősy) in the Pesti Vigadó, Budapest.

He is a guest conductor of many orchestras and choirs in Hungary. He has conducted in many countries in Europe as well as in China and Japan. He has made many CD recordings conducting both choirs and orchestras.

Awards: Liszt Prize (1998), Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2005), Bartók-Pásztory Prize (2015), Officers Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (2015), Prima Prize (2017).

He has won Artisjus Prizes on five occasions (1992, 1993, 1997, 2005, 2009) for his premieres of contemporary Hungarian works.