Budapest Festival Orchestra

The Budapest Festival Orchestra was founded in 1983 by Iván Fischer and pianist Zoltán Kocsis. From the start, many star conductors worked with the orchestra, most notably Sir Georg Solti, who served as Principal Guest Conductor until his death in the fall of 1997, as well as soloists such as the violinists Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas Zukerman, and Gidon Kremer and the pianists András Schiff, Radu Lupu, and Richard Goode. In Budapest, the musicians give some 50 performances per season at the MüPa concert hall and the Franz Liszt Academy. They also regularly appear as guests at major festivals and in major music centers. They have performed at the Salzburg Festival, the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the BBC Proms in London, the Maggio Musicale in Florence, and the Prague Spring. The Budapest Festival Orchestra has been the resident orchestra at the Vicenza Opera Festival since 2018 and will perform Mozart’s The Magic Flute there in October 2026. The orchestra specifically targets young audiences, for example through concerts where dancing is encouraged or projects such as “Midnight Music,” “Surprise Concerts,” the “Cocoa Concerts” series for very young listeners, and “Community Weeks.” Since 2024, the orchestra has led the European Orchestra Academy in collaboration with the European Union Youth Orchestra. The Budapest Festival Orchestra has received numerous awards for its CDs and was named Orchestra of the Year by Gramophone magazine in 2022. The orchestra’s European tours are generously supported by Aline Foriel-Destezet.

Lucerne Festival (IMF) debut on 26 August 1986 playing music by Franz Liszt and Franz Schubert.

May 2026