Biography

István Láng (Hungarian: [ˈiʃtvaːn ˈlaːŋɡ]; 1 March 1933 – 23 October 2023) was a Hungarian composer, academic teacher and member of the board for international music organisations. Besides freelance composing, he worked as an academic teacher of chamber music at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, lecturing internationally in the United States and Mexico. He was secretary general of the Association of Hungarian Musicians from 1978 to 1990, and a member of the board of the International Society for Contemporary Music and the International Music Council (UNESCO).

In his compositions, Láng used serial techniques, influenced by composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and others whose music he had met at the Warsaw Autumn and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, in a synthesis with traditional Hungarian elements from Béla Bartók's music. He was instrumental in creating a studio for electronic music in Hungary. His compositions have been described as theatrical even in concert pieces.