Hungarian/German conductor Róbert Farkas, Chief Conductor of the Mav Symphony Orchestra in Budapest since September 2021, captured the attention of the classical music world when he won the third prize of the International Lovro von Matačić competition, as well as the Opera Award and the Special Award of the Croatian Composer's Society (HDS) in 2011. Since then, he has developed strong artistic ties to such orchestras as the Hungarian National Philharmonic, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Danubia Orchestra in Budapest. Most recently another meaningful and regular co-operation connects him to the Banatul State Philharmonic orchestra in Timisoara (Romania) where he became principal guest conductor for the season of 2022/23.
In Germany he conducted the Berliner Symphony Orchestra, the Mendelssohn Leipzig Chamber Orchestra, the Heidelberg Philarmonic, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, the Rheinische Philharmonie and the Collegium Musicum Pommersfelden.
Internationally he conducted the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic, the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra "George Enescu", the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Sofia and the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia in Madrid. In 2022 he conducted his Austrian Debut in Salzburg with the Hungarian National Philharmonic.
Apart from several classical operas like Cosí fan tutte, La Traviata or The Abduction from the Seraglio, he also conducts modern and contemporary works like Shostakovich's Moscow Tscherjomuschki, Hindemith's Lehrstück, Rihm's Nietzsche opera Dionysos, Peter Maxwell Davies' The Turn of the Tide, Echnaton by Philip Glass and Johannes Harneit's Abends am Fluss und Hochwasser.
Farkas was born in Òzd, Hungary and grew up surrounded by various musical influences and traditions. He then studied Choral Conducting and Music Pedagogy as well Conducting with both Tamás Gál and András Ligeti. In 2006, he was awarded an Erasmus scholarship, which brought him to The University of the Arts in Berlin, where he continued his studies in conducting with Professor Lutz Köhler until receiving his degree in 2012. From 2013 on he worked for several years as assistant to Ivan Fischer, in Berlin, Budapest and on tour.
2020 saw the release of his first CD, a recording of piano concertos by Anton Rubinstein with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and pianist Schaghajegh Nosrati.
