A budapesti születésű karmester 1977-ben végzett a Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Akadémián zeneszerzés-, karmester- és zongora szakon, majd Sir Georg Solti ösztöndíjasaként Bécsben tanult.
István Dénes conductor was born in Budapest. He studied piano and conducting at the Music University Franz Liszt in Budapest until 1977. During his studies as a conductor in the Hungarian State Opera House, he was granted scholarship by Sir Georg Solti so he could study at the Music University in Wien.
From 1987 to 1995 he was the first conductor of the Theater Bremen and from 1995 to 2008 he was the musical director of the Theater in Trier. Furthermore he is the first guest conductor of the Hungarian State Opera House and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Budapest. As a conductor he is regular guest in the great Concerthalls and festivals in Europe.
István Dénes made numerous radio performance and recorded albums for the Hungarian Radio Budapest, Radio Bremen and Radio Bavaria. In 1996 he conducted the Opera Sarema by Zemlinsky that was performed for the first time.
As a composer István Dénes wrote several pieces, including the “Treveris -cantate” for two women opera singer and for chorus/orchestra, inspired by an ancient text written by Ausonius and Alquinus. In 2000 he wrote an interesting piece “Nokia Walz for piano” and “Nokia-Walz for Orchestra” incorporating the mobile phone for the first time in history of classical music.
In the last years he called attention to himself with a lot of discoveries, debut and first performance. The center of his musical act is on the interpretation of classical-romantic music and the modern music from the early 20th century.
