In February 2026, György Kurtág will turn 100. Alongside György Ligeti and Péter Eötvös, he is one of the most significant contemporary Hungarian composers in music history. Between 15 and 28 February, the Budapest Music Center will organise a celebratory festival featuring international stars and leading performers from the Hungarian contemporary music scene, who will present a cross-section of Kurtág's oeuvre at the Hungarian capital's major classical music concert venues.

On the evening of György Kurtág's birthday, 19 February, the Danubia Orchestra, with Víkingur Ólafsson and István Várdai, will perform the cornerstones of the composer’s oeuvre at Müpa. The following day, Kurtág's new opera, Die Stechardin, composed between 2023 and 2025, will have its world premiere at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, performed by Concerto Budapest conducted by András Keller, with soprano Maria Husmann in the title role. On 25 February at the Academy of Music, violinist Hiromi Kikuchi and violist Ken Hakii will perform two pieces dedicated to them with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. György Kurtág Jr. will perform a work composed together with the honouree, and Juliane Banse and András Keller will close the festival with Kafka Fragments on 25 February.

The chamber music concerts at the BMC Concert Hall will feature renowned artists including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Benjamin Appl, Steven Isserlis, Gábor Csalog, Zoltán Fejérvári, Miklós Perényi, Ditta Rohmann, Dénes Várjon, and the Kelemen Quartet. Kurtág's most important vocal cycles will also be performed in the Concert Hall: Andrea Jőrös, Zsolt Haja, and the UMZE Ensemble will present the Akhmatova and Pilinszky Songs, while the SWR Vokalensemble concert will include one of the greatest and least frequently performed pieces, the Songs of Despair and Sorrow.

Alongside Kurtág’s works, the two-week festival will also feature pieces by his great predecessors who were particularly close to his heart: Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven, Béla Bartók, and György Ligeti. Kurtág's influence across genres will be demonstrated by the Moment’s Notice Trio and the Modern Art Orchestra in concert at the House of Music Hungary. In the House of Music’s Sound Dome, Kurtág’s drawings will be brought into dialogue with his music in a special audiovisual performance.

As part of the festival, the documentary film Kurtág Fragments, made between 2021 and 2025 by Silver Bear-winning director Dénes Nagy, will premiere at Müpa. This will be followed by a panel discussion with Víkingur Ólafsson, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Benjamin Appl, and Dénes Nagy. The exploration of Kurtág’s universe will conclude with a musicological conference and symposium entitled Kurtág Perspectives, and an exhibition entitled Signs, Games, Messages, organised by the Institute of Musicology.

For the full festival programme and ticket purchases, visit: 100.kurtag.hu

The festival is supported by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Innovation.

Partners: Müpa Budapest, Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest), House of Music Hungary, ELTE HTK Institute of Musicology (Budapest), Editio Musica Budapest, Paul Sacher Stiftung