Róbert Farkas
Hungarian-German conductor Róbert Farkas has served as Chief Conductor of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest since September 2021. He first gained international recognition in 2011 when he won Third Prize at the International Lovro von Matačić Conducting Competition, where he also received the Orchestra Award and the Special Prize of the Croatian Composers’ Society (HDS).Since then, he has conducted regularly and established strong artistic relationships with leading Hungarian ensembles, including the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Danubia Orchestra Budapest. Beginning with the 2025/26 season, he also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic in Satu Mare.
In Germany, Farkas has conducted the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Leipziger Kammerorchester, the Heidelberger Philharmoniker, the Wuppertaler Sinfonieorchester, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, and the Collegium Musicum Pommersfelden. His international engagements include appearances with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, and the Sofia National Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2022, he made his Austrian debut in Salzburg with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alongside the core operatic repertoire – including Così fan tutte, La Traviata, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Farkas is equally committed to modern and contemporary music. His repertoire includes Shostakovich’s Moscow, Cheryomushki, Hindemith’s Lehrstück, Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Dionysos, Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Turn of the Tide, Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, and Johannes Harneit’s Abends am Fluss and Hochwasser.
His creative imagination and musical insight have earned him the mentorship of distinguished conductors such as Iván Fischer, Dmitri Kitajenko, and Péter Eötvös. Zoltán Kocsis personally supported his debut with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Farkas has also participated in masterclasses led by Bernard Haitink, Gianluigi Gelmetti, and Jorma Panula.
Born in Ózd, Hungary, he grew up surrounded by diverse musical traditions. He studied choral conducting, music pedagogy, and orchestral conducting with Tamás Gál and András Ligeti. In 2006, he received an Erasmus scholarship that enabled him to continue his conducting studies at the Berlin University of the Arts under Professor Lutz Köhler, graduating in 2012.
In 2013, he began a close artistic collaboration with Iván Fischer, working alongside him for several years with both the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, on tour and in their regular concert seasons.
In 2020, his first CD was released, featuring Anton Rubinstein’s piano concertos with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and pianist Schaghajegh Nosrati. In the same season, he conducted the Hungarian premiere of Tchaikovsky’s reconstructed Symphony No. 7 with the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra.
Róbert Farkas, photo: Marco Borggreve
