Gergely Ittzés, Flute

Special:  Tuesday, February 25, 2014 Masterclass

6:30pm-9:30pm
Engelman Recital Hall
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on E. 25th Street)
New York, NY

Do you remember Hungarian flutist Gergely Ittzés' insightful Doppler presentation last November (see program below) amid the noisy blowers of the rehearsal room at Baruch? Do you recall his exquisite pianissimo phrases despite the noise of the adjoining theater? The Baruch Performing Arts Center has offered him a second chance to share his artistry. Gergely's masterclass is geared for advanced high school and college students.

Open to all NYFC members, admission is free. Auditors are welcome. Performers will be chosen by teacher recommendation. Teachers and/or students, please contact info@nyfluteclub.org for more information.

Hiroko Sasaki, Piano

All dates and programs are subject to change.

Gergely Ittzés' appearance is made possible in part by the Hungarian Cultural Center of New York.

Admission: Free to NYFC members, $25 for non-members, $15 for students and seniors (65+)
at the door.

Hungarian Gergely Ittzés is one of the more proactive personalities of the flute scene. A researcher of the flute and a composer of many experimental flute works, he applies up-to-date flute techniques, especially polyphonic playing to his music, with the intention of connecting the contemporary with the traditional. His large repertoire includes the important works written for his instrument and a number of rare compositions from today as well as centuries past. In addition to classical and modern music, jazz and free improvisation have influenced his musical idiom.

Gergely performed and led master classes around the world, including Brazil, the United States, Canada, China, Japan and many European countries. He was the first to perform Anthony Newman’s Flute Concerto, which was composed for him, at the Budapest Spring Festival in 2004. He has performed at many major flute festivals, including those in Beijing, Brazília, Paris, New York, Manchester, and Freiburg. Gergely is an active soloist, chamber musician, and a member of the UMZE Chamber Ensemble (with which he performed in Carnegie Hall in 2009).  He is also the founder of the TeTraVERSI flute quartet. Gergely has won many national and international competition prizes, including the Grand Prix of the 2nd Aleksander Tansman International Competition for Musical Personalities in Poland, and such national distinctions as the Franz Liszt Award and the Lajtha Award.

Gergely holds a doctorate from the Budapest Franz Liszt Academy. His dissertation is entitled The Role of Polyphonic Thinking in Flute Playing. After graduating, Gergely spent a year at the international Prague Mozart Academy then a few months at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada where he completed and recorded his large-scale work Vision Pit for four flutes. He participated in numerous master classes with András Adorján, Michel Debost, Michael Faust, Jean-Claude Gérard, István Matuz, Auréle Nicolet, Carol Wincenc, and others. In 1998 and 1999 he was supported by the Annie Fischer Grant offered for promising young soloists.

Gergely has recorded more than a dozen CDs, including Hungarian contemporary music, his own works, violin transcriptions, less-known repertoires such as Pierre-Max Dubois, Eugéne Walckiers, Boccherini and the complete works of Sigfrid Karg-Elert. His new recording project, entitled The Great Book of Flute Sonatas, is a work in progress and includes more than thirty pieces of significant flute sonatas from music history.

Currently a professor at the Széchenyi University in GyAAAAAAA‘r, Gergely is the editor of various flute publications, composed or transcribed by himself or others. His piece Totem, commissioned by the American National Flute Association for their 2012 Young Artist Competition, won the NFA Newly Published Music competition in 2013. As the result of his research on the multiphonic capabilities of the flute he published the software Flouble in 2012 (www.flouble.com).
 

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