János Gonda


János Gonda is a Hungarian jazz pianist. Born in Budapest, he studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and earned his diploma first at the musicological and then in the piano department. His activities include composition, concert performances, teaching, and musicological research.

Music

He formed his first band in 1962, and with them made the first LP in the Hungarian "Modern Jazz" series. Since then he has led several bands which can be heard on the anthology-form records in that same series. In the late 1960s he co-led the Gonda-Krusa Quartet with the Polish vibrophnis Richard Kruza. He also recorded with his Gonda Sextet, which he formed in 1972. One of their famous recordings is titled Shaman Song. The sextet consisted of János Gonda, Gábor Balázs, Tamás Berki, Péter Kántor, István Dely and Gyula Kovács.
As a composer, he mainly writes jazz pieces, but has also branched out into other forms of expression. Worth mentioning are his modern songs, his film scores and other incidental music, his dance compositions and symphonic jazz works. The most significant of the last is his Australian Concerto of 1970. In 1974, he composed a musical entitled Pro Urbe.

Teaching and research

Gonda's theoretical works also focus on jazz. Of his books and studies, one should mention the book Jazz, published in 1979.
He has been a professor and head of the jazz department at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, and vice president of the International Jazz Federation.
Gonda was head of the jazz department affiliated with the Associated of Hungarian Musicians. From 1965 to 1997, he was leader of the jazz department of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He was the artistic director of Tatabánya International Jazz Camp and Tatabánya International Institute of Creative Music Education.

Awards

In 1974, he was awarded the Hungarian Erkel Prize.

Discography

Film scores