Biography
(1966*) - hungarian composer, publisher, concert organizer and media worker (Bartók Channel, since 1992)
Some Prizes:
- Istvánffy Benedek prize (2000 - Silverwinged Butterflies)
- Proposed work on the Rostrum of Composers in Amsterdam (2000 - Silverwinged Butterflies)
- Proposed work on the Rostrum of Composers in Wien (2003 - Accord/ion/ concerto)
- Erkel Prize (2004)
- Second prize of the Composers' Competition in Memoriam Attila József (2005 - Distant Song)
- Proposed work on the Rostrum of Composers in Paris (2007 - Les fleurs du vent)
- The composition of the year in Hungary - Artisjus Prize (2007 - Les fleurs du vent)
- Lajtha Prize (2010)
- Bartók-Pásztory Prize (2012)
- Prize of the Third International Composer's Competition - in memoriam Zoltán Kodály (2012 - Négyes-hatos)
- Prize of the UMZF Composer's Competition - in Memoriam Béla Bartók (2015 - Zöldfény-udvarú éj)
- New York Film Awards - Best Score (2019) - Liar, music to the Albert Kámán's film.
- Vegas Movie Awards - Best original Score (2019) - Liar, music to the Albert Kámán's film
- für Anima - Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra's Anniversary Composer Competition (2020 - In the Splintered Field of the Setting Sun - I. place, the prize of the orchestra and special prize)
Favourite composers: George Crumb, Peteris Vasks, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Giya Kancheli, György Kurtág.
Favourite performers: Kathleen Ferrier, Patricia Petibon, Arturo Toscanini, István Lantos, Walter Gieseking, Josef Lhévinne, Vikingur Ólafsson.
Favourite ensembles: Hortus Musicus, Nordic Affect, Orquesta de Instrumentos Autóctonos y Nuevas Tecnologías, Voces8, Kremerata Baltica
Gyula Bánkövi was born in Dunaújváros (Hungary) whose atmosphere of cultural diversity, artistic events of the highest standard and excellent educational establishments would determine his career. He learnt to play the piano, later the bassoon, sang in numerous choirs throughout his childhood and also did ballet which provided a thorough grounding for his future endeavours. He studed at the Béla Bartók Musica Secondary Scholl and the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest under highly inluential professors including Miklós Kocsár, Attila Bozay, Sándor Balassa and Zoltán Pongrácz who handed down not only professional knowledge but also provided lifelong artistic and human guidance.
His first success came as a student at the Academy when his first electro-acoustic work, Hydrophonie, won a prize in a competition for works on the theme of water. This may have inspired his interest in electro-acoustics throughout his career as a composer. Written with this technique, Silver-winged Butterflies (1999) was the first winner of the Benedek Istvánffy Prize founded by the Association of Hungarian Composers in 2000, and was also highly ranked by the jury of the composers' radio festival organised by the Amsterdam-based Tribune Internationale des Compositerus. (Bánkövi's Accord=ion/ concerto was equally successful in 2003 in vienna, as was The Flowers of the Wind, also featuring on this album in Paris in 2007). In 2004 Bánkövi was awarded the Erkel Prize, and in 2007 Artisjus elected The Flowers of the Wind as the "Composition of the year" in 2007. He has worked for the Hungarian Radio"s Bartók channel where he has had various jobs including presenter, musical director and ptorgamme aditor, marked by numerous awards for the promotion of Hungarian and foreign contemporaray music: three Merit Awards (1996, 2001, 2006), an Atrisjus Prize (1996) and the Lajtha Pirze (2010).
His love of sports also comes from his native town. (He was a child when the world-class swimming pool opened there, and also the wide urban spaces and the magical Danube bank contributed to him becoming an avid swimmer, runner, cyclist and rower.) He won a several national senior swimming prize (200m, 400m 800m freestyle) - silver and bonz medal.
The Duna Television made a portrait film about the composer in his serie of In God's hands with the title Lux aeterna in 2018.
https://nava.hu/id/3297756/ (In Hungarian)