Vocal artist, mezzo-soprano Anna Molnár is „a versatile artist with a stirring voice, who likes pushing boundaries and participating in experimental performances”. /Dániel Mona/ Contemporary-, baroque-music, lied and opera are equally important in her career.
As a soloist Anna performed several times at the Grand Hall and Solti Hall of the Liszt Academy, at Palace of Arts (Müpa Budapest), at the Budapest Music Center, at FUGA Budapest and at the House of Music Hungary. She appeared as a soloist with orchestras like the Hungarian Radio Symphony, the Orfeo Orchestra, the UMZE Ensemble and the Concerto Budapest, the Danubia Orchestra, the MÁV, Danube, Savaria Symphony Orchestras, the Budapest Strings, the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc, the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra, the Erdődy Chamber Orchestra, the Budapest Bach Consort and the Metrum, MilleniArt, Vivaldi and Weiner Ensembles.
On the opera stage she sang roles like Ottavia and Valletto from The Coronation of Poppea (led by Michael Chance), Didymus from Theodora or Dorabella from Così fan tutte (conducted by György Vashegyi). Since 2018 Anna appears regularly in productions of the Hungarian State Opera. In 2019 she sang in the world premiere of Away, no matter where at the MuTh Theater (Vienna), a physical theatre performance of Forte Company of Csaba Horváth. Since Away, no matter where is being performed at the Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in Budapest. Also in 2019 she took over the triple role of Mother, Virgin and Stephania in the puppet-opera The Giant Baby composed by Gregory Vajda, a production of the Kolibri Theatre for Children and Youth. In 2020 she sang the world premiere of Transporters, a mono-opera on the novel of Péter Esterházy by the same composer, dedicated to Anna herself.
New music has an important place in Anna Molnár’s life. She performs music of living composers regularly, among them a lot of world premieres written exclusively for her.
Significant and challenging 20th century pieces like Ligeti Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures, Webern 4 Lieder op. 12, Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire, Boulez Le Marteau sans maître or Berio Folk Songs, O King and Sequenza III are also on her repertoire. She is a regular guest artist at festivals like CAFe Budapest Contemporary Art Festival, Transparent Sound New Music Festival, CentriFUGA (contemporary music lab of the FUGA Budapest Center of Architecture), The Day of Listening (one-day contemporary music marathon of Concerto Budapest), Balaton Summer Festival and she also performed at the VårFEST of Voxlab in Oslo, the Ligeti Festival Transylvania, Kamara.hu chamber music festival, Budapest Spring Festival, Liszt Fest, The Night of Music of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Valley of Arts Festival, the Armel Opera Festival and the Haydneum Festival of Sacred Music. Since 2017 Anna is a permanent guest soloist at the conductor and composer masterclasses of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, lead by Péter Eötvös and Gregory Vajda.
As vocal chamber music was an important part of her studies, it is playing a defining role in her professional career today. Anna performs with Purcell Choir lead by György Vashegyi and the Collegium Vocale Gent directed by Philippe Herreweghe. She also won auditions to Cappella Amsterdam (Daniel Reuss), Nederlands Kamerkoor (Peter Dijkstra) and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Vienna (Erwin Ortner). From 2016 to 2019 Anna was also a member of Rolf Beck’s International Choir Academy.
Anna was awarded the Annie Fischer Scholarship three times (2016, 2017, 2018) as well as the scholarship of Bank of China in 2017. Since March of 2020 she teaches classical voice at the jazz department of the Liszt Academy Budapest.
Anna has always approached music performance from many different angles. Still today, she regards people and ensembles from her childhood and from her student years very important part of her musicianship. The following people and musical groups made her into what she is today: Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis (artistic leaders: Tamás Bubnó and János Mezei), Ilona Andor Children’s Choir (artistic leader: Sándor Kabdebó) and the Angelica Girls’ Choir (artistic leader: Zsuzsanna Gráf).
Her very first singing professor, starting in 2006, was Katalin Schultz. At the Liszt Academy’s Oratorio and Lied department Anna was the student of Andrea Meláth. She graduated in 2017. In 2016, with the help of the European Erasmus Program, she spent one semester at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, where she worked with Rita Dams and Gerda van Zelm. After her university years Anna participated in three significant new music masterclasses: the Darmstadt Summer Course — professor: Donatienne Michel-Dansac, the Summer Academy of Ensemble Linea in Strasbourg — professor: Françoise Kubler, and the Impuls in Graz — professors: Agata Zubel and Andreas Fischer. She also attended masterclasses of Nancy Argenta, Ingrid Attrot, Marcel Boone, Júlia Hamari, Margreet Honig, Peter Kooij, Ágnes Kovács, Dorothee Mields, Thomas Quasthoff, Claudio di Segni and György Vashegyi.
As a soloist she performed with the following conductors, directors, musicians among others: Makoto Akatsu, András Almási-Tóth, Ferenc Anger, János Bali, Rolf Beck, László Borbély, Tamás Bubnó, Michael Chance, Péter Csaba, Gábor Csalog, István Dénes, Marcell Dénes-Worowski, Péter Dobszay, Gergely Dubóczky, Róbert Farkas, Krisztián Gergye, Zsuzsanna Gráf, Dénes Gulyás, Henrietta Hojsza, Gábor Hontvári, Csaba Horváth, Sándor Kabdebó, András Keller, Gergely Kesselyák, Péter Kővári, Luca Lavuri, János Novák, Zoltán Pad, László Paulik, Márton Rácz, Martin Rajna, Guido Roveda, Gábor Rusznyák, Szabolcs Sándor, Csaba Somos, Jon Svinghammar, Jutka Szokol, Augustin Szokos, Jakab Tarnóczi, Kornél Thomas, László Tihanyi, Gregory Vajda, Bence Varga and György Vashegyi. As a chamber singer: Marcus Creed, Péter Eötvös, Ádám Fischer, Iván Fischer, Aapo Häkkinen, Matthew Halls, Zsolt Hamar, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, János Kovács, Ádám Medveczky, Zubin Mehta, Krzysztof Penderecki, Francesc Prat, Kaspars Putniņš, Helmuth Rilling, Christophe Rousset, Masaaki Suzuki, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Maciej Tworek and Hugh Wolff.
photo: Gellért Orbán