Iván Fischer made his own dream come true when in 1983, together with Zoltán Kocsis, he co-founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Thanks to its innovative approach to music and the uncompromising dedication of its musicians, the Budapest Festival Orchestra has become the youngest ensemble to make it into the list of the ten top symphony orchestras in the world. Alongside appearances in its home town Budapest, the orchestra performs regularly in some of the most important concert venues on the international music scene, and features on international streaming platforms.
In addition to performance successes and acclaimed tours, the Budapest Festival Orchestra has also made an international name for itself with a range of innovative concerts. The autism-friendly Cocoa Concerts, the Surprise Concerts (also much enjoyed at the BBC Proms in London), informal Midnight Music performances for young adults, open-air concerts in Budapest and the free Community Weeks are each unique in their own way.
Another special feature of the orchestra is that its members regularly form a choir at their concerts. Each year the Budapest Festival Orchestra also stages an opera production in collaboration with the Iván Fischer Opera Company, Müpa Budapest and the Vicenza Opera Festival. These performances have toured to the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the Edinburgh Festival and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. In 2013 Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro headed the New York Magazine’s list of best classical music events. In autumn 2018 the Vicenza Opera Festival, founded by Iván Fischer, was launched with a performance of Verdi’s Falstaff at the Teatro Olimpico.
Since its foundation, the Budapest Festival Orchestra has received three awards from the British magazine Gramophone: in 1998 and 2007 for best recording and in 2022 as orchestra of the year. The orchestra’s greatest successes are linked to Gustav Mahler: its recording of his First Symphony was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2013.
In 2024 Iván Fischer, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) collaborated to found the European Orchestra Academy (EOA).
