MÁV Symphony Orchestra

Composer Juraj Filas (1955–2021) was born in Košice, Slovakia, and studied in Prague and later became a teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. His musical language is selectively lyrical, following European traditions. His opera about Jane Eyre was written for the Bartók Plus Opera Festival in Miskolc, Hungary. He died in New York of a coronavirus infection on New Year’s Eve, 2021.

The subtitle of Requiem is Prayer of Hope, which he composed in 2020 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Gergely Kesselyák wrote of him, “I had hoped we would work together on the premiere of Requiem, perhaps become friends, and I would persuade him to write more operas. I also liked that he spoke Hungarian so beautifully. I lost a future friend. As a farewell, the closing lines of the Requiem: ‘Ego sum alpha et omega, resurrection, et vita!’ (I am the alpha and the omega, the resurrection and the life!)”

Ildikó Cserna is a Liszt Prize-winning soloist singer of the Hungarian State Opera, Attila Fekete is a Liszt Prize-winning soloist singer of the Hungarian State Opera, and has many tenor roles in the repertoire of romantic opera. Filip Bandžak was born in the Czech Republic, studied in his home country and then in Moscow, Russia. At the age of 15, he won an international competition and has performed as a guest singer around the world ever since. Gergely Kesselyák has conducted performances in many music theatres in Hungary and also in neighbouring countries. He has been responsible for the Hungarian premiere of numerous works by contemporary composers from abroad who are less known in Hungary.