Gábor Hontvári, the young multi-award-winning Hungarian conductor honoured with the Ernst von Schuch Prize and the Junior Prima Prize, is recognised as one of the most exciting conductors of his generation. His list of astonishing accomplishments on the European continent and abroad, already marks him for a significant international career.
He currently holds the position of Music Director (Interim) for the 2025/26 season at the Theater Nordhausen and LOH Orchestra Sondershausen. Hontvári served as First Kapellmeister and Deputy Music Director of Mainfranken Theater in Würzburg from the 2019/20 season until 2025. In the current season, Hontvári will appear as a guest conductor at the Teatro la Fenice, Venice, leading the production of Tschaikovsky´s Nutcracker, and conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Hungarian State Opera, Budapest.
Over the past few years, Hontvári appeared with several of Germany’s leading orchestras, including the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen.
He has collaborated with many internationally renowned soloists and performed in some of Europe’s most prestigious concert halls. In 2017, he conducted the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie on their tour in South Korea. In 2021, he made his debut at the Elbphilharmonie with the Hamburger Camerata, and in 2022, he conducted the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra at the Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
In Hungary, Hontvári is a sought-after guest conductor for the country’s leading orchestras, including Budapest’s National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, MÁV Symphony Orchestra, and the Danubia Symphony Orchestra. Elsewhere in Hungary, he has conducted the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra and the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2023, he conducted the Hungarian State Opera on their successful tour to Dubai, where he led the production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
Hontvári has won prizes at international conducting competitions: In 2020, he was awarded 2nd prize at the IX. Sir Georg Solti International Conductors' Competition in Frankfurt. In 2019, he achieved 2nd place at the Deutscher Dirigentenpreis Competition in Cologne. In the same year, he went on to receive the Audience Choice Award and 2nd place prize at the Campus Dirigieren Competition for German Universities in Nuremberg. He was the winner of the 7th Conducting Competition for the Middle-German Universities in 2015.
He obtained his master’s degree and completed postgraduate courses in orchestral conducting at the esteemed Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar, under the guidance of professors Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik. In 2015, he graduated with a joint-honours bachelor degree in choral and orchestral conducting from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. Since 2016, Hontvári has been a scholarship-holder at the German Music Council’s Conductors’ Forum (Forum Dirigieren des Deutschen Musikrates). In 2018, he was awarded the Ernst-von-Schuch Prize, which is an annual award given by the Forum to the most promising young conductor in Germany. In 2022, he received a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Verband, attending the Bayreuther Festspiele. That same year, he was awarded the Junior Prima Prize, Hungary’s most prestigious award for young artists under the age of 30.
In addition to his extensive symphonic repertoire, Hontvári has a rich and varied opera porfolio. During his tenure as Kapellmeister at the Mainfranken Theatre Würzburg, he not only conducted regular repertoire pieces but also led numerous successful new productions. He also has served as guest conductor at the Staatsoperette Dresden, the Musiktheater im Revier, the Theater Kiel, and the Baadisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.