The founding concert of the former Musicians’ Society was performed on 9 December 1811 under the baton of Georg Lickl, the founder of the orchestra. The Pécs Symphony Orchestra was founded as an independent artistic institution in 1984. Its musical conductors over the years were Tamás Breitner, Howard Williams, Nicolás Pasquet, Zsolt Hamar and Zoltán Peskó. Since the autumn of 2011, the orchestra has been working together with principal conductor Tibor Bogányi and permanent conductor András Vass, and its permanent guest conductor is Zoltán Kocsis.
The orchestra, which set itself the goal of professional renewal in 2003, became one of Hungary’s leading artistic ensembles in 2010. With its numerous unique concerts and a wide-ranging programme structure that satisfies all ages, it is a key artistic institution in the South Transdanubian region. It is a regular guest at prestigious Hungarian festivals, including the Budapest Spring Festival, the Miskolc Opera Festival and the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Marathon series. Its guest artists and conductors are among the best in the international music scene, having worked with conductors such as Oliver von Dohnányi, Olari Elts, Maxim Vengerov, Krzysztof Pendereczki, Leopold Hager, Mischa Maisky (cello), Fazil Say (piano), László Hadady (oboe) and Roby Lakatos (violin). The orchestra has successfully toured Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, the UK, the USA, Canada and other countries. In the spring of 2006, it gave a highly successful concert in the Vienna Konzerthaus as part of the Vienna Philharmonic’s series of recitals, and in autumn it gave the concert for the 1956 Vienna Revolution commemorations in the Stephansdom, and in 2010 it performed in Essen, and in 2011 in Vienna and Graz. It is a collaborating partner in several international projects, founder and resident orchestra of the international cooperation of the Armel Opera Competition and Festival. It is also a regular guest at the Budapest Spring Festival.
At the end of 2013, the orchestra performed in prominent concert halls in Switzerland and Germany during a nearly three-week concert tour. The orchestra performed in the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Victoria Hall in Geneva and Lucerne, among others, and finally, to crown its European tour, it gave a concert in the main concert hall of the Berlin Philharmonie, the continent’s most important concert hall, which seats 2,500 people.
The orchestra won the Artisjus Award in 1991, the Pro Communitate of the City of Pécs in 1996, the Baranya County Art Award in 1997, the Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta Award in 1998, the Baranya County Regional Príma Award in 2007, and was the ambassador of the Pécs 2010 European Capital of Culture programme from 2007. As resident orchestra at the Kodály Centre in Pécs, it stages 42 performances a year in Pécs, and has also been performing a series of sold-out concerts at the Palace of Arts in Budapest for over a decade.
Concert calendar: Home page – PFZ