András Déri
Conductor
András Déri graduated as an organist from Budapest's Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in 1980 and went on to earn his diploma in conducting in 1985. Between 1985 and 1991, he was a member of the Hungarian State Opera, first conducting there in 1986 in Pongrác Kacsóh's singspiel John the Valiant. Following this, he conducted a number of large-scale operas (Verdi: Nabucco,Rigoletto;Donizetti: Anna Bolena;Britten: Albert Herring;Erkel: Hunyadi László;Vajda: Mario and the Magician;Rossini: La Cenerentola, Il barbiere di Siviglia). He received scholarships to study in Vienna in 1985 and in England in 1993, and in 1994 received an Artisjus Award for his activities on behalf of contemporary music. He often conducts open-air performances and at festivals, and occasionally also gives organ concerts. He has made guest appearances in numerous countries, having conducted the Riga Ballet's The Nutcracker in Germany and also making a successful appearance at Como's Autunno Musicale together with Michele Campanella. He has made guest appearances in The Hague with the Hungarian National Ballet, the Hungarian State Opera's ballet company, and in Ljubljana with the Wiener Staatsoper's ballet company. Since 1997 he has again been a member of the Hungarian State Opera, marking his return by conducting Rossini's opera La Cenerentola. Since 2002, he has regularly been conducting ballets (The Nutcracker, La fille mal gardée, Giselle, Coppélia, The Taming of the Shrew, Onegin, The Sleeping Beauty, The Fountain of Bakchisarai, Mayerling, Scheherazade, Swan Lake, Anna Karanina, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, Balanchine Night). Between 2005 and 2010 he served as guest conductor for the Wiener Staatsoper's ballet company. As a guest conductor at the Hungarian State Opera since 2013, he has conducted its most popular ballet productions. In 2014, on Hungary's National Day, he was presented the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary.