Peter Erös

Hungarian-American conductor Peter Erös was born in Budapest in 1932 and attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he studied composition with Zoltán Kodály, chamber music with Leo Weiner, and conducting with László Somogyi.

In 1956, during the Hungarian Revolution, he emigrated to Holland. At age 27, Erös was named Associate Conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, a post he held for five years. While in Amsterdam, he assisted Otto Klemperer in opera productions for the Holland Festival. In the summers of 1960 and 1961, he served as a coach and assisted Hans Knappertsbusch at the Bayreuth Festival, and in 1961 he was assistant conductor to Ferenc Fricsay for the Salzburg Festival production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo.” He continued to assist Fricsay both in Salzburg and in Berlin with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra and Deutsche Grammaphon through 1964. In 1965, Erös came to the United States for the first time at the invitation of George Szell to work with him and the Cleveland Orchestra as a Kulas Foundation Fellow.

His principal appointments were as Music Director and Conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (1966-1969) in Sweden, the Australian Broadcasting Commission Orchestras (1967-1969, Sydney and Melbourne; 1975-79, Perth), the San Diego Symphony and La Jolla Chamber Orchestra (1971-1980), and the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra (1982-1989) in Denmark.

As a guest conductor, Erös appeared regularly with major symphony orchestras and opera companies on five continents, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Hamburg State Opera, the Hague Residentie Orchestra, and the Scottish National Orchestra, and made nine tours of South Africa. He received ASCAP awards in 1983 and 1985 for his programming of music by American composers.

Erös came to the University of Washington School of Music in 1989 as the Morrison Endowed Professor of Conducting and Music Director and Conductor of the University Symphony. He also taught conducting from 1960 to 1965 at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where his pupils included Hans Vonk, and served as Director of Orchestral and Operatic Activities at the Peabody Conservatory of Music from 1982 to1985.

At the personal request of Richard Wagner’s granddaughter Friedelind, Erös led the first set of recordings of orchestral works by Friedelind’s father, Siegfried Wagner. Two discs were released on the Delysé label, featuring the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erös: the Symphony in C and the tone poems “Glück, Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel wär” (Scherzo), “Weltersteinspielung,” and “Sehnsucht.” He also conducted the first recording of the opera “Jesus Before Herod” by Hungarian composer Gabriel von Wayditch (1888 – 1969) with the San Diego Symphony.

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