Born in Hungary (1969) and a graduate of the Budapest Liszt Academy of Music, GERGELY ITTZÉS is one of the most proactive personalities of the flute scene. While being a researcher of his instrument and composer of many experimental flute works applying the most up-to-date flute techniques, especially polyphonic playing, he does not specialize in contemporary music only but tries to connect it with tradition. His large repertoire includes all the important works written for his instrument and a great number of rarities from the past centuries and today. In addition to classical and modern music, several other styles have also influenced his musical idiom, like jazz and free improvisation. For ten years he used to be member and composer of the Talizmán Group.
Mr. Ittzés has given concerts and led master classes in many countries all over the world such as Brazil, the United States, Canada, China, Japan and the rest of Europe. Numerous composers have dedicated works for him. He gave the first performance of Anthony Newman’s Flute Concerto, composed for him at the Budapest Spring Festival, 2005. He has been invited to perform at major flute festivals of the world (Beijing, Brazília, Paris, New York, Manchester, Freiburg and many others). He is an active soloist and chamber musician, a member of the UMZE Chamber Ensemble (with which he performed in Carnegie Hall in 2009) and founder of the TeTraVERSI flute quartet. He has played together with Magdalena Kožena, Miklós Perényi, Zoltán Kocsis, Zoltán Rácz, the Amadinda Percussion Group, Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra among many others and improvised together with Markus Stockhausen, Emil Viklický, Don Thompson, Szilárd Mezei etc. He is the principal flutist of the Erdődy Chamber Orchestra.
He won many national and international competition prizes (including the Grand Prix of the 2nd Aleksander Tansman International Competition for Musical Personalities in Poland) and national distinctions such as the Franz Liszt Award and the Lajtha Award. The German Lexikon der Flöte dedicates an article to his activity.
After graduating, Gergely Ittzés spent a year at the international Prague Mozart Academy then a few months at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada where he completed and recorded his large-scale work Vision Pit for four flutes. He participated in numerous master classes (with András Adorján, Michel Debost, Michael Faust, Jean-Claude Gérard, István Matuz, Auréle Nicolet, Carol Wincenc, etc.). His most influential non-flutist tutors were György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados. In 1998 and 1999 he was supported by the Annie Fischer Grant offered for promising young soloists.
Mr. Ittzés has recorded more than a dozen CDs, including Hungarian contemporary music, his own works and violin transcriptions, and less-known repertoire like Pierre-Max Dubois, Eugéne Walckiers, Boccherini and the complete works of Sigfrid Karg-Elert. His new recording project entitled The Great Book of Flute Sonatas is a work in progress and includes all of the significant flute sonatas of music history (more than thirty pieces).
Mr. Ittzés is flute professor at the Széchenyi University in Győr and editor of various flute publications composed or transcribed by himself or others. His newest composition ‘Totem’ was commissioned by the National Flute Association for the Young Artist Competition held in Las Vegas, 2012. As the result of his research on the multiphonic capabilities of the flute he published the software and DVD-Rom Flouble in 2012 (www.flouble.com). He holds a doctorate from the Franz Liszt Academy; his dissertation, written in 2008, is entitled The Role of Polyphonic Thinking in Flute Playing.
Gergely Ittzés plays a Sankyo Pure Silver flute with a special golden Seder headjoint.
¤ Talizmán in Concert - CD 1995, JOKA 1003
¤ Multiple Ego (Többes én) - CD 1996, Í ves könyvek 11.
¤ Franz Doppler: Works for flute - CD 1997, Pannon Classic, PCL 8001
¤ Solos. 20 th century Hungarian works for flute - CD 1999, Hungaroton 31785
¤ The Mill of Time or The Art of Canon; Works for flutes by József Sári - CD 1999, Fonó Records Fa-053-2
¤ Late-romantic Impressions by Sigfrid Karg-Elert - CD 2000, Hungaroton 31925
¤ Violin Works on Flute - CD 2000, FTM 0016
¤ Chamber Music with flute by P. M. Dubois - CD 2004, Hungaroton HCD 32269
¤ 'Ittzés plays Newman' Complete works for flute by Anthony Newman - CD 2004, 903 Records, NY
¤ TeTraVERSI: Fictive Memories - CD 2006, FTM 0032
¤ Flute for Four - CD 2007, FTM 0044
¤ Eugéne Walckiers: Chamber Music with Flute - CD 2008, Hungaroton HCD 32562
¤ Extended Circles (Ittzés plays Ittzés) - CD 2008
¤ Boccherini: Flute Quartets – CD 2011, Hungaroton, HCD 32695
¤ Vision Pit (Music for one, two and four flutes by Gergely Ittzés) – CD 2012
As a chamber or soloist musician also heard on:
¤ Cage: Works for Percussion Vol.6. - CD 2011 Hungaroton, HCD 31849
¤ Mezei Szilárd Octet: Tönk - CD 2010, Slam 521
¤ Mezei Szilárd Ensemble: Desert - CD 2008, Creative Sources Recordings, CS 115
¤ Carl Reinecke: Sextet - CD 2005, Hungaroton HCD 32277
¤ Zoltán Gyöngyössy - CD 2002, BMC 074
¤ Dukay: Over the Face of the Deep - CD 2001, BMC 052
¤ Aleksander Tansman IInd International Competition of Musical Personalities - CD 1999, Acte Préalable 0017
¤ Eötvös: Psalm 151, Psy, Triangel - CD 1999, BIS 948
¤ Battuta: Nünüke esete - CD 1998, Binder Music Manufactury BMM 9802
¤ Lelkes állatok: Na mi a helyzet? - MC 1997
¤ Makám: Café Babel - CD 1997, Fonó Records FA-029-2
¤ Emil Viklický: Duets - CD1997, Lotos 0052-2 0531
¤ Emil Viklický: Homage to Josip Plečnik - CD 1996, Lotos 0036-2 131 (with Magdalena Kožena a.o.)
¤ Milan Slavický: Chamber Music - CD 1996, Matous 0051-2-931
¤ Young Composers Group - CD 1995, Hungaroton
¤ Szemző: The Conscience - CD 1993, Leo Records LR 185
Studio recordings for the Hungarian Radio:
Dohnányi: Air, Sonata in C # minor; Hába: Fantasy; Sári: Arion's song - The Dolphin's Way; Weber: Sonata in A flat major; Farkas: 33 battute per Angelica, Meditazione
(Distributed by the Akkord Music Publishers www.akkordmusic.hu):
¤ Ittzés: Chuang Tse's Dream - 1993, author's edition
¤ Ittzés: Just a Tube; Five Etudes - 1994, Trio Art Music
¤ Ittzés Gergely, fuvolás (a book in Hungarian) - 1996, Íves könyvek 11.
¤ Ittzés: Chart of Double-stops on the Flute - 1997, author's edition
¤ Ittzés: 'Mr. Dick Is Thinking In Terms Of a Blues-Pattern' - 2003, 2012 author's edition
¤ Dohnányi: Sonata in C# minor Op. 21. (arr. for flute and piano by G. Ittzés) - 2005, Akkord Music Publishers A-1097
¤ Ittzés: Multiphonic Sound Poems – 2009, Akkord Music Publishers A-1237
¤ Never Enough of Bach (transcriptions by Gergely Ittzés) - 2010, Akkord Music Publisher A-1146
¤ Sári, József: Six Concert PIeces for solo flute - 2011, Akkord Music Publishers A-1191
¤ Ittzés: Two Breathtaking Flute Duets - 2012, author’s edition
¤ Ittzés: Totem - 2012, Falls House Press
¤ Sári, József: Canons for homogenous instruments - 2013, Akkord Music Publishers A-1201
Master classes and lectures:
Doppler Institute, Budapest, Hódmezővásárhely, Békés, Pécel Summer Academy, Veszprém Auer Academy, Győr International Flute Master Class, F. Liszt Academy of Music Budapest (H); Komarno (SL); Martinu Academy of Music, Prague (CZ); Novi Sad, Belgrade (SRB); Zagorje (SLO); Katowice Academy of Music (PL); Dresdner Zentrum für die Neue Musik; Hochschule für Musik, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Mannheim, Mainz, Stuttgart, Freiburg (D); Leuven, Conservatoire Brussels (B); Maastricht (NL); Guildhall, London (GB); Moscow (R); Brazília (BR); Toronto University, Banff Centre for the Arts (CDN); Julliard School, Manhattan School, NYU, SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Purchase University, Bard College, University of Michigan, Oberlin Conservatory, Fresno University, Chapman University (USA); Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Shenyan, Chengdu (China)