19 February 2026, 3 pm
Signs, Games and Messages. An exhibition marking the 100 th birthday of György Kurtág
György Kurtág’s music is built on signs, games, and messages. To celebrate the Hungarian
composer’s 100 th birthday, the Museum of Music History ELTE-RCH is holding an exhibition
that highlights these three aspects of his life’s work. Guiding the visitors through his entire
career, the exhibition provides insight into Kurtág’a manuscripts and sketches, printed works
and literary experiences, his own graphics, and numerous photographs of him. His works
resonate in the space. Visitors to the exhibition can play and compose, leaving their own signs
and message behind.
Exhibition Opening: February 19, 2026, 3 p.m. You can download the invitation card from here.
On the opening, pianist László Borbély performs György Kurtág’s piano pieces from the series Játékok
The program:
…memories, little lead soldiers...
Hommage à Beatrice Stein
All’ongherese
Les Adieux (in Janáčeks Manier)
…once again: Shadow play
Merran’s Dream
…jubilate…
… memories, little lead soldiers... (3rd version)
15 December 2025
As part of the Kurtág 100 Festival, the Budapest Music Center is providing 9,600,000 forints in support of the exhibition Signs, Games, Messages. An Exhibition on the 100th Birthday of György Kurtág. The exhibition design is the work of InnoTeq Ltd. The exhibition is being organized in cooperation of the ELTE RCH Institute for Musicology, the Budapest Music Center and the Paul Sacher Stiftung Basel.
26 May 2025
Balázs Gulyás, president of the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network, has secured 12,644,100 forints for the Kurtág 100 program in 2026 of the Archives for 20th–21st-Century Hungarian Music. The financial support will enable the Kurtág exhibition, which opens on February 19, 2026 and the international Kurtág conference which will take place between June 18 and 20, 2026, to be realized.
14 March 2025
June 18–20, 2026 International musicological conference on the 100th birthday of György Kurtág
Institute for Musicology (Research Centre for the Humanities), Budapest, Hungary
The Institute for Musicology (Research Centre for the Humanities) invites scholars interested in the oeuvre of György Kurtág to pay tribute to him on his 100th birthday by analyzing his works, interpreting his life events and scrutinizing the cultural, national, political context he has worked in, based on primary and secondary sources. An internationally recognized composer, György Kurtág shows a great interest in a wide range of genres, styles, forms of expressions, emotions and human and artistic experiences. The conference aims at presenting and interpreting the diversity and richness of Kurtág’s oeuvre focusing on different approaches as musical analysis, performance practice of Kurtág’s works, characteristics of the composer’s notation, his compositional process, Kurtág’s relationship to literature, languages and arts, role of intertextuality in his compositions, his artistic and personal relationship with composers, performers and other artists, and the aesthetical, philosophical and psychological background of his music. The conference is completely open in terms of topics, provided that the planned papers examine some aspects of György Kurtág’s exceptional and unique art.
Abstracts of 250 words are invited for 20-minute individual papers in English.
All proposals should be submitted by e-mail no later than October 1, 2025 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. including an abstract, a short biographical note. Please include contact details and institutional affiliation (if any).
For any additional information, please contact the organizer:
Anna Dalos (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)