RUMY, Balázs (HUN)

Recognized for his inspired performances and beautiful tone, Hungarian musician Balázs Rumy has served as principal clarinetist of both the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. He has performed with these orchestras in some of the best concert halls in Europe, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna and La Scala in Milan. An accomplished chamber musician, Mr. Rumy has performed in chamber music concerts throughout Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary, and has played in several international music festivals, including the Santander International Festival in Spain, the Collegium Musicum in Pommersfelden, Germany and the Budapest Autumn Festival in Hungary. A prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including the 62nd Geneva Competition (2007 Concours de Genève), the 2009 Carl Nielsen International Competition (Denmark) and the 2010 Giuseppe Tassis Competition (Italy), he participated through invitation in the annual conference of the International Clarinet Association in both Japan and in the United States, for three consecutive years. He is the recipient of several scholarships, including an Annie Fischer Scholarship of Performance, a Loránd Eötvös Scholarship from the Hungarian Government, a Gustav Mahler Orchestra Academy Scholarship, a Scholarship from the Swiss Government and a Róbert Kovács Scholarship. In 2011, he was awarded The Juilliard School’s MAP and IMP Fellowships. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Hungarian State Opera’s Vilmos Komor prize.

As the winner of Juilliard’s Leo Ruiz Memorial Recital Award, he made his Weill Recital Hall Debut in Carnegie Hall on 13 November 2013 with pianist Deborah Lee. As a SYLFF fellow, Mr. Rumy travelled to Vienna in April 2013 and to Japan in November 2010 to participate in Juilliard chamber music projects. Of his September 25, 2011 performance with the New Juilliard Ensemble of Carmen Moore’s Concerto for Ornette, Steve Smith of The New York Times wrote, “Within the ensemble […] Balazs Rumy, played sweetly in written material; one gorgeous passage that paired Mr. Rumy with Lauren Williams on English horn suggested what could have been the homegrown American sound Dvořák imagined.”

Mr. Rumy was born in Székesféhervár, Hungary in 1983, and studied piano before turning to the clarinet. He holds a Master of Music and a Doctoral Degree from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, a Soloist Diploma from the Conservatory of Geneva, Switzerland and an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School in New York. His main professors were Béla Kovács, Thomas Friedli, Romain Guyot, Jean-Michel Bertelli and Charles Neidich. He currently lives in Hungary, where he serves as principal clarinetist of the Hungarian State Opera. A father of two children, Mr. Rumy indulges in his hobbies: travelling and cooking when his schedule permits.

You can communicate with Mr. Rumy in English and French