Two World Premiere Opera Recordings

Teaching a conducting master class last week for the Eotvos Foundation at the beautiful and highly functional Budapest Music Center was demanding and a lot of fun. This week had been busier than I expected. On Monday composer Peter Eotvos and producer Laszlo Goz (owner of BMC) and myself had a chance to officially listen to the recording we made this January. I am happy to report, that “Paradise Reloaded (Lilith)” now has a rich in details, beautifully mastered reference recording. Mr. Eotvos will put a few finishing touches on the final version before the end of this year. This World Premiere opera recording will be available as part of the Budapest Music Center Eotvos series sometimes soon in 2015.

I had two days to rehearse the comic opera of Ernst von Dohnanyi
http://www.britannica.com
again (the one I premiered at the Erkel Theater this fall). We are taking this opera into the studio. Starting tomorrow (Sunday) I will be driving almost every day to
http://www.phoenixstudio.hu
where the wonderful singers and the musicians of the Hungarian State Opera will be my partners in crime to record the first ever uncut version of this delightful 20th Century comic opera. The recording will be part of the discovery CD series of Hungarian operas by the Hungarian State Opera
http://www.opera.hu
I am hoping to see the final product on the shelves as soon as February 2015.

Just to take a small break from the recording process (OK we do have a planned day off) I am driving to Vienna, Austria on Tuesday.
I’ll be meeting opera singers Rebecca Nelsen
http://rebeccanelsen.eu
and Tamara Gallo
http://www.tamaragallo.com
to do two pre-rehearsals for the February World Premiere of my Comic Opera of the Modern South, Georgia Bottoms. Sometimes in the second half of December I will be meeting stage director David Gately
http://www.davidgately.com
in the US to discuss details about the February World Premiere in Huntsville, AL.

I wish You All a Happy Holiday Season! Come back here after Christmas time to read about my New Year’s Eve concert with the Huntsville Symphony! See you Soon!

40 is the new…

No, 40 is not the new 20. 40 is 40. Although I don’t think that #40 is any more important than #39 or #41(I remember doing a concert -being somewhat rebellious and silly at the same time- called “Gregory Vajda is 26 yo”) yet at age 40 I can’t totally escape thinking about what is behind and what is ahead. So to keep this light yet informative and hopefully blog-worthy I decided to list all the orchestras and ensembles I had the pleasure to conduct since I started my conducting career (my first real professional appearance dates back to 1998)
[Planning to write some more posts similar to this in the coming year.]
USA
Atlanta Opera
Baltimore Symphony
Camerata Houston
Charlotte Symphony
City Music Cleveland
Grand Rapids Symphony
Grant Park Orchestra
Houston Symphony
Huntsville Symphony
ICE: International Contemporary Ensemble
Kalamazoo Symphony
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Louisiana Philharmonic
Memphis Symphony
Milwaukee Symphony
Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra
Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra
Omaha Symphony
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Oregon Symphony
Philadelphia Orchestra
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Santa Barbara Symphony
Santa Rosa Symphony
Seattle Symphony
Symphony Silicon Valley
Texas Festival Orchestra
Third Angle New Music Ensemble
Toledo Symphony
Vancouver Symphony

CANADA
Calgary Philharmonic
Edmonton Symphony
Kitchener Waterloo Symphony
Les Violons du Roy
Montreal Opera
Montreal Symphony
Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal
Toronto Symphony
Winnipeg Symphony

THE AMERICAS
Orquesta Sinfonico de Nacional Costa Rica
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

EUROPE
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Ensemble Laboratorium
Hungarian State Opera
Hungarian Radio Symphony
Klangforum Wien
MAV Symphony Orchestra
Pannon Philharmonic
Savaria Symphony
UMZE New Music Ensemble
Vienna Philharmonic

AFRICA
Cairo Opera