TIBOR KOCSAK
composer, music director, pianist, conductor
Tibor Kocsák is an outstanding artist of contemporary Hungarian musical theater.
From an early age, he is devoted to music, he graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. As an associate professor at the Budapest Theater and Film Academy, for many years he taught almost the entire artist society of Hungarian musical theaters representing international standards.
As a composer, he is one of the most significant creators, founders of modern Hungarian musical performances. His works have been performed for decades with extraordinary critical and audience success in many theaters in Hungary and abroad.
He wrote more than fifty stage accompaniments, as well as songs, musical settings of poems, chansons and film scores, several record albums, as well as twelve musicals and two full-length ballets. His works have been presented all over the world in Estonia, Finland, Japan, Germany, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, Korea, and Australia.
His dance play Snow White and the 7 Dwarves, written with Gyula Harangozo choreographer-director, became a worldwide success, after 150 performances in the Hungarian National Opera House, the Erkel Theater Budapest and the Szeged Open Air Stage, became one of the most frequently played ballet of our time. This work gain reputation in countries such as Estonia, Finland, Australia, Taiwan, Russia and Kazakhstan.
ALL TEXT
EDUCATION
He was born in 1954 in Budapest. His keen interest in music was already evident in his early childhood. He was a member of the Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir led by Botka-Csányi, and played as a child actor in fairy-tale operas and on the stage of the Hungarian National Opera House. Later, he studied at the Bela Bartok Vocational School of Music, then at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music.
ENGAGEMENTS
After graduating from the Academy, he became a music teacher at the Hungarian Theater and Film Academy, first as an assistant teacher, later as an assistant professor, and then as an associate professor.
His first large-scale stage work, The Chronicle. He wrote a rock opera in 1984 together with Gábor Kemeny for the Rock Theater Budapest. From then on, his fate was inseparable from the Rock Theater, where he became a permanent composer and guest conductor, and it was then that he made a lifelong friendship with Tibor Miklos lyricist, with whom he composed highly successful musical stage works.
Since 1989, he has been the music director of the leading musical theatre in Hungary, the Madach Theater in Budapest, the composer, music director, conductor, and arranger of countless musical shows.
In 2007-2008, he was a jury member and musical director of the “Theatre Company” television show.
He has been awarded numerous professional and audience awards, and he is currently the musical director and conductor of the Madách Theater in Budapest, and his latest work is the dance drama “Phantom pain”, presented in December 2020.
MAJOR WORKS AS A COMPOSER
Be Good Till Death (musical based on the world-famous novel of Zsigmond Moricz)
Anna Karenina (musical)
The Red Mill (musical)
Journey (rock opera)
Abigail (musical)
Poor Rich (Fatia Negra) (musical)
The Tragedy of Man (ballet)
Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs (ballet)
Lady Budapest (rock opera)
The Chronicler (rock opera)
AWARDS
eMeRTon Award (1991)
Huszka Award (1995)
Ferenc Erkel Award (2004)
Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, civilian section (2005)
Artisjus Award (2006),
Fényes Szabolcs Award (2008)
Award for Budapest (2009)
