György Vukán

György Vukán (born August 21, 1941 in Budapest; August 12, 2013 in Agárd; also George Vukán) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and jazz musician. György Vukán graduated from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest in 1959 as a classical pianist. He then studied dentistry until 1964.He worked in various formations with musicians such as Philly Joe Jones, Clifford Jordan, Linda Hopkins, Annette Lowman, Frank Foster, Clark Terry and Kenny Wheeler From 1985 to 1991, he was the director and composer of the Creative Art Ensemble, followed by the Creative Art Trio, which, apart from Vukán, includes bassist Balázs Berkes and drummer Elemér Balázs. The trio performed at festivals throughout Europe, including Kai Winding, Art Farmer and Stéphane Belmondo, and gave five concerts at the 1992 World Exposition in Seville. The trio played drama, film and radio plays and recorded more than twenty albums.In 1999 he founded the ClassJazzBand with Eszter Horgas, with whom he published several cross-over albums and participated in ballet productions. In 2002, at the Miskolc Opera Festival, Vukán was the first crossover opera production of the duo Giacomo Puccinis La Boheme.Vukán composed more than 130 film scores, two of which were nominated for an Oscar, eighty songs (after Federico García Lorca and Pablo Neruda, among others), a recording of all 150 psalms for Chor a cappella, several ballet music, an opera, instrumental concerts and symphonic works.His ballet Derby was on the Hungarian State Opera's schedule for more than three years.In 1989, he composed a mass dedicated to Pope John Paul II during his visit to Hungary in 1991. In 2000 his opera Black Advent premiered at the Hungarian State Opera. In 2005 he worked with choreographer Béla Földy and Budapest Dance Theatre to produce The Rhythm of the Blood, for which Vukán Crossover wrote compositions by Gershwin, Bach and Chopins and played with Eszter Horgas.