Zoltán Jeney dies at 76

Zoltán Jeney studied under Zoltán Pongrácz at the Kodály Zoltán High School of Music in Debrecen from 1957 to 1961, then graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in 1966 under Ferenc Farkas, and studied from 1967 to 1968 at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome under Goffredo Petrassi. In 1982, he studied computer music at IRCAM Paris.

In 1970, he founded the New Music Studio with Péter Eötvös, Zoltán Kocsis, László Sáry and László Vidovszky, joined later by Gyula Csapó, Barnabás Dukay, György Kurtág jr., Zsolt Serei and András Wilheim. Between 1974 and 1984 he sang in the choir of Schola Hungarica conducted by László Dobszay and Janka Szendrei. From 2004, he has been a member of the New Hungarian Music Association for performing and promoting contemporary Hungarian and foreign music.

In 1993, he was elected a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Art. From 1993 to 1996 he was president of the Hungarian Composers' Association, from 1993 to 1999 he was a member of the board of the International Society of Contemporary Music, and from 1996 to 1999 he was the vice president of the same society. In 1979, in recognition of his work as a composer, he received the Kassák Prize from the Parisian literary journal Magyar Műhely. He was awarded the Erkel Ferenc Prize in 1982, the Meritorious Artist Award in 1990, the Kossuth Prize in 2001, and the Bartók-Pásztory Prize in 1988 and 2006. In 2001 and 2018, he was awarded the Artisjus Award for Classical Music of the Year, and in 2006, he was awarded the Aegon Art Award.

In 1985, he was a research professor at Columbia University in New York for four months. From June 1988, he spent one year researching in West Berlin with a DAAD scholarship. From 1986 he taught at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. Initially, he taught practical skills in composing at the Department of Musicology. In 1995, he became head of the Department of Composition and Conducting, and then, after the department was divided up, he was in charge of the Department of Composition until 2011. From 2002, he was also the leader of the University's Doctoral School. In 1999, he taught as a visiting professor at the music faculty at Northwestern University in Chicago. Between 2000 and 2002, he participated in research work in the DLA program on composing at London’s City University.

“The music world has lost another great soul. On October 27, 2019, a few minutes before nine o'clock, Zoltán Jeney, Professor Emeritus of the Academy of Music, Kossuth Prize-winning composer, member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Art, died at the age of 77. Not only has he been a great composer, he also had other significant achievements. He had the contemplative personality required for his work, but was also a public social warrior from a young age. The Academy of Music, the music world and the world of Hungarian composing owes much to him.

He was a legendary teacher. Thirty-three years ago, in 1986, György Kroó hired him as a teacher at the Academy of Music, and he still actively taught in the spring of this year. It has been a decisive part of his life to pass on his vast knowledge to the younger generation, and it is no exaggeration to say that he has defined the thinking of several generations of young Hungarian composers. He was head of the Department of Composition and Conducting for sixteen years (1995-2001), and was the founder and leader of fourteen years from 1999 of our institute’s Doctoral School. He studied music composition under Ferenc Farkas, then spent a year in Rome, where he studied under Goffredo Petrassi. In an interview, he called Petrassi ‘an excellent teacher and an overall charming person’, but the same could have been said about him by any of his students. ‘He teaches by gently leading you to the solutions, while always leaving the freedom of choice in your hands.’

Professor Jeney had a very strong aesthetic worldview, but never forced it on his students. He wanted them to find their own way. Although his essence was musical experimentation and the exploration of novelty, he knew the musical tradition to an incredible depth. 

From Gregorian chants, which he familiarized himself with as a member of the Schola Hungarica founded by László Dobszay, through the great Renaissance composers, as well as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartók, to the latest 20th century music he found through the New Music Studio founded in 1970, he had an insight into everything in the world of music, and his curiosity never faded. His magnum opus, the Funeral Ceremony, which has taken shape over more than a decade and a half, covers the entire history of Western music.

Professor Jeney's music is no easy listening: it requires complete intellectual devotion from both the performer and the recipient. As a member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, with the help of Zoltán Kocsis I was lucky enough to have gained some insight into the work of Zoltán Jeney in the early nineties, and I can say for sure that the effort is worth it: the works of Jeney demand a lot, but give a lot more back in return. As Vice Rector for Education and later as Rector, we worked together on many issues and even fought together. The clear thinking manifested in his music was also of great value in the day-to-day running of the institution.

Dear Professor! You will be very much missed!”

(A recollections by Dr. Andrea Vigh, president of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music)