(Tibor Tallián - Muzsika 2005)

János Szerekován, tenor, was born in Marosvásárhely, a Transylvanian city in Romania.   He began studying violin in the local music school and later graduated in the voice section of the Marosvásárhely School of the Arts. His teacher was Mária Papp.  In 1998 he was accepted into the local Philharmonic Chorus.  He began his solo career in 2000 singing in Mozart’s Requiem.  That year he also participated in a number of national and international competitions, winning first place in the Brasso Sacred Competition.

In 2001, Mr. Szerekován was accepted into the Hungarian Radio Chorus and sang a solo with the chorus in the Schütz Christmas Oratorio.  He also began studying under Boldizsár Keönch, dean of the voice faculty at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest.  He debuted at the Hungarian State Opera in 2003 in a production of Rossini’s L'Occasione fa il Ladro.  He has been awarded both the Nívó and the Lajtha vocal awards in Hungary.

Mr. Szerekován participated in the Majk International Mastercourse with Ionel Pantea and Zsuzsa Misura and studied in a mastercourse with Thomas Houser in Pennsylvania, USA in 2007.  He is a regular guest artist at the Debrecen Csokonai Theater and the Szeged National Theater.   He has appeared on numerous recordings of the Hungarian Radio.

Roles performed:

Boy                           
Székelyfonó (Transylvanian Spinning Room)  Kodály

Almaviva                  
Il barbiere di Siviglia  Rossini

Ramiro                     
La Cenerentola  Rossini

Fenton                     
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor  Nicolai

Don Ottavio             
Don Giovanni  Mozart

Lord Arthur              
Lammermoori Lucia    (with Andrea Rost)  Donizetti

Ernesto                    
Don Pasquale (with József Gregor)  Donizetti

Lindoro                       
L'italiana in Algeri Rossini

Paolino                    
Il matrimonio segreto Cimarosa

Le Comte Ory            
Le Comte Ory    Rossini

Malatestino
Francesca da Rimini   Zandonai

Goro
Madama Butterfly     Puccini

Mr. Szerekován has a broad oratorium repertoire, enjoying particular success internationally as the Evangelist in Bach’s Passions. Most recently, he sang this role in the Matthew Passion in Bucharest on the renowned Atheneum stage.  Critics had this to say about that performance:

“the other exceptional performance was given by tenor János Szerekován, who was born in Marosvásárhely, but currently works in Hungary. He is a professional, well-trained lyric tenor.  He has a voice that easily accomodates the Mozart repertoire as well as baroque music.  On this occasion, he performed the Evangelist with a dramatic sense of the rich, complex meaning of that role.  Amazingly, he sang the recitatives and both of the difficult tenor arias."

The artist regulary sings with Hungary’s top orchestras as well as those of other countries.  He is a permanent soloist with the Szeged Symphonic Orchestra and the Vaszy Viktor Chorus, the ELTE orchestra and the Central Baptist Choir as well.

Conductors:

Florentin Mihăescu, Robert Houlihan, Fahrettin Kerimov, Michael Gläser, János Czifra, Michael Sekulla, Sándor Gyüdi, Mátyás Antal, Lóránd Szalman(†), Tamás Pál, Romeo Rimbu, László Molnár, László Gerhát, Árpád Dárdai, Ferenc Nagy, Miklós Cser, Gergely Ménesi, Gergely Kaposi, György Vashegyi, János Fürst(†), József Horváth, Gábor Hollerung, László Kovács, Csaba Somos, Pál Németh, Ilona Meskó, Ferenc Sapszon,  Péter Erdei, Zoltán Pad, Ilarion Ionescu Galati, Somogyi-Tóth Dániel, Steffen Schlandt, Georg Schmöhe, Márton Rácz, dr. Gábor Baross (†), Gábor Oláh, István Zimányi, Gábor Kardos, Ferenc Koczka, Cornelia von Kerssenbrock, Shinya Ozaki, Kálmán Strausz, Csaba Somos

Stage-managers:

Mária Angyal (†), Mihály Kerényi, Mária Harangi, Balázs Paróczai, Attila Toronykői, Attila Demény, Bagossy László, Kovalik Balázs, Somai Miklós, Petra-Luisa Meyer, Ferkay Tamás, Kürthy András

CD-DVD Recordings:

2004 - Tenor solo in Misa Brevis (Kodály) with Pécs Chamber Orchestra, cond. Aurél Tillai (CD)

2005 - Tenor solo in Die Schöpfung (Haydn) with the Szeged Symphonic Orchestra and soloists József Gregor and Tatiana Davidova (DVD)

2006 - Tenor solo in Inno alla Pace and Our Lady of Heavens (Luciano Simoni) with Marosvásárhely Philharmonic Orchestra, cod. Rambu Romeo (CD)

2010 - Tenor solo in Carmina Burana (C.Orff) with Békéscsaba Symphonic Orchestra, cond. Dániel Somogyi-Tóth (CD-DVD)