Born in Budapest, after piano studies, Péter Halász learned composition at the Bartók Conservatory under István Fekete Győr. Continuing his education in Vienna, he studied conducting under Professor Leopold Hager and the art of the opera répétiteur with Professor Konrad Leitner at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien, graduating as a conductor in 2001. Following this, he took master classes in Lucerne as a pupil of Bernard Haitink. At the inception of his career, Péter assisted Ádám Fischer at festivals and opera house performances on several occasions. His first permanent position was as a répétiteur at Opernhaus Zürich and then – between 2003 and 2011 – he worked at Staatstheater Mainz, starting out as a répétiteur and eventually becoming one of its conductors. From 2011, he was the principal conductor and deputy music director of Sinfonieorchester Aachen and Theater Aachen for two seasons.
Péter made his debut at the Hungarian State Opera with Rossini’s Ilbarbiere di Siviglia and since then he has regularly conducted performances there. As the State Opera’s music director between 2013 and 2016, he oversaw numerous celebrated premieres, including the first performance in Hungary of Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten and the Eastern European premiere of Thomas Adès’ The Tempest. It was thanks to Péter’s advocacy that the State Opera’sOrchestra Academy for emerging musicians was founded in 2015. Since the 2023/24 season, he has been the principal guest conductor of the Hungarian State Opera.
Between 2021 and 2024, Péter was engaged as Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf, conducting the premieres of Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans and Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, as well as Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Verdi’s La traviata, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s Tosca and Madama Butterfly, and Johann Strauss Jr’s Die Fledermaus. He still frequently appears there. He is also a regular guest conductor at Staatsoper Hamburg, where he has conducted Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Don Giovanni over several seasons. He has appeared in a number of other German opera houses too, including Baadisches Staatstheater, Saarländisches Staatstheater and Staatstheater Kassel. In 2020, Péter was the conductor for the premiere of Madama Butterfly at Theater Bern, and in 2021 he conducted the premiere of Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Latvian National Opera. In 2024, he led the Irish National Symphony Orchestra in their performance of William Wallace’s grand romantic opera Lurline. He has also conducted gala performances starring such world-famous singers as Ailyn Perez, Angela Gheorghiu, Anja Kampe, Vesselina Kasarova, Plácido Domingo, Piotr Beczała, Gregory Kunde, Ambrogio Maestri and Ferruccio Furlanetto. In 2024, he took the podium at the Hungarian State Opera for the Solti Accademia’s gala concert. Featuring Hera Park, Aigul Akhmetshina, Freddie De Tommaso and Paul Grant, the event was streamed live by the Deutsche Grammophon Stage + platform, where the recording can still be enjoyed.
Besides opera, Péter regularly leads symphonic concerts both in Hungary and abroad (including the National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, the MÁV Orchestra, the Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra, the Óbuda Danubia Orchestra, the Szeged Symphonic Orchestra, the Radiosinfonieorchester Wien, the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Sinfonieorchester Aachen, and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz). In 2019 he worked as a visiting professor on the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation’s Master Course for Conductors at the invitation of Peter Eötvös himself. In 2023/24, he held opera conducting courses as a visiting professor at Budapest’s Liszt Academy of Music, and at the invitation of Éva Marton, he conducted both the final and the gala concert of the Academy’s Fifth Éva Marton International Singing Competition.
Péter lives in Budapest. He is married and is the proud father of two children.
Performances conducted at the Hungarian State Opera:
Premieres: Verdi: Falstaff; R. Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten; Mozart: Cosí fan tutte; Wagner: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried; Weber: Der Freischütz; Adès: The Tempest; Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Bach: Cross Cantatas; Dvořák: Rusalka; Puccini: Turandot
Repertoire: Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia; Puccini: La bohème, MadamaButterfly, Tosca; Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni;Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker; Verdi: Rigoletto, Nabucco, La traviata,Don Carlo, Requiem; J. Strauss: Die Fledermaus; R. Strauss: Ariadneauf Naxos, Arabella; Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana; Leoncavallo:Pagliacci; Bizet: Carmen; Wagner: Parsifal
