The collective and coordinated presentation of contemporary Hungarian music – the core mission of Budapest Music Center remains the same ever since its 1996 founding by trombonist and academy professor László Gőz. As a concert promoter, record label and information center, BMC actively works on establishing the international recognition Hungarian music deserves. The new headquarters of Budapest Music Center opened in 2013 to serve the same goal with its 300-seat concert hall, the state-of-the-art Opus Jazz Club featuring international and local jazz greats, a Music Information Center and Library with a music collection of 100 thousand items, and BMC Records with over 350 classical, contemporary and jazz releases. BMC is also the proud home of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation which educates, supports and promotes young conductors, composers, musicologists and dramaturgs.

Classical, contemporary and jazz concerts, lectures, workshops, courses, and artist Q&A’s make up approximately half of BMC’s 700 annual events, complemented by a portfolio that includes conferences, closed meetings, and large open-air events.

Opus Jazz Club presents the most exciting artists and bands from the European and Hungarian jazz scene from Tuesday to Saturday each week at Budapest Music Center. With its outstanding concert programme, acoustics, and gastronomy, Opus rightfully earns its place among the top European jazz clubs, attracting international jazz fans as well as a wider range of music lovers with an ear for fresh music. Since its 2013 opening, Opus featured such notable artists as Dave Liebman, Irène Schweizer, Vincent Courtois, Michel Portal, Louis Sclavis, Keith Tippett, Aki Takase, Joachim Kühn, Andy Sheppard, Vincent Peirani, Émile Parisien, Leszek Możdżer, Alexander Hawkins, Django Bates, and Theo Bleckmann. One of the club’s highlights is a Fazioli piano, considered to be one of the best pianos in the world, with its own Fazioli Nights solo recital series. The club’s restaurant features an international cuisine offering unique dishes, warm and cold concert bites, and great Hungarian wines.

Founded in 1998, the catalogue of BMC Records has now surpassed 250 releases. It publishes Hungarian and international artists of the contemporary, classical and jazz field. The label’s strategy is to be open towards carrying over traditional musical values as well as to acts representing a new, experimental approach. Through its releases over the years, BMC Records has built up international recognition for a number of Hungarian artists and initiated successful collaboration between Hungarian and international musicians, workshops and orchestras. The catalogue covers the works of the most important contemporary and classical Hungarian composers (Liszt, Bartók, Ligeti, Kurtág, Eötvös) performed by such renowned artists as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Barbara Hannigan, Gábor Csalog, Adrienne Krausz, Ensemble Modern, the Calder Quartet, and the BBC Symphony Orcherstra. Jazz albums feature artists such as Archie Shepp, Chris Potter, Hans Lüdemann, Dave Liebman, Joachim Kühn, Daniel Erdmann, Lionel Loueke, and Émile Parisien. Awards by Midem, Jazzman, Deutsche Schallplatten, and Diapason Magazine, as well as over two thousand reviews in the international press signify the fact that BMC Records has become an important European record label. Album releases are available both on CD and in digital format.

The BMC Hungarian Music Information Center and Library collects and shares information about Hungarian classical and jazz artists and contemporary Hungarian music works. The constantly updated online database currently contains information about 3000 artists and 19.000 compositions. The library, open to the general public free of charge, contains more than 90.000 music scores, books, CDs and LPs. The Library’s scope of collection concentrates on Hungarian composers of the 20th and 21st century, but also features a unique Mahler record collection. The Library’s atmosphere serves as an ideal background for small-scale cultural events such as recitals, lectures, movie screenings, and masterclasses. Since 2014, the Music Information Center has been publishing a series of short monographies about Hungarian composers which serve as an important source for researchers, music historians, and musicologists.