Alpaslan Ertüngealp

Alpaslan Ertüngealp was born in Istanbul. He started his musical education at the age of seven as a pianist at the Istanbul University State Conservatory. He continued his studies in Budapest at the Franz Liszt Music Academy. He received his Master’s degree as a Pianist in 1993 and continued his studies as conductor at the Franz Liszt Music Academy (now named Franz Liszt Music University), where he concluded his studies as Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting in 2000. In 2002, he founded the Artemisia Chamber Orchestra (now Academia Hungarica Chamber Orchestra), where he serves as the Artistic Director. He released the first double CD with the Artemisia Hugarica Chamber Orchestra in 2011 under the Vera Vista label. Ertüngealp has been a guest to the Bratislava International Music Festival, the Budapest Spring Festival, the Istanbul International Music Festival. He hosted the Béla Bartók Music Festival (as a co-organizer and conductor) and Seminar in Hungary over several seasons.

Ertüngealp has received highly prestigious international awards including the third Prize of the International Conductors’ Competition of Hungarian Television in Budapest (1998) and the third Prize of the International “Prokofiev” Competition for Conductors in St. Petersburg (1999), which led to his international recognition as a talented young conductor. His awards were topped with the First Prize of the “Dimitri Mitropoulos” International Conducting Competition in Athens (2002). Ertüngealp won the Artisjus Award in 2003 by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture for his achievements in performing Hungarian Contemporary Music.

Ertüngealp has performed with the worlds first ranking orchestras such as Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale di RAI Torino, Orchestre National Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Orchestra Mozart Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Teatro Felice di Genova, Komische Oper Berlin, Hungarian National Opera, and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Within 15 years of work with prominent orchestras of the international concert arena, he has accumulated an active repertoire of over 300 symphonic works and operas including all 104 symphonies of Joseph Haydn. Ertüngealp conducted the world premier of the new opera “Eumenides” by V. Tole, commissioned for the Cultural Olympiads in Athens at the Odeon of Herodus Atticus during the Hellenic Festival of Athens in September 2005.

Among his other accomplishments, Ertüngealp served as Associate Principal Conductor of the Szombathely Symphony Orchestra, Hungary, from 2001 and assumed the position of Music Director of Savaria Symphony Orchestra in 2006.

Since 2011, Ertüngealp has been the Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor of the legendary conductor Claudio ABBADO. This collaboration continues through 2014. His assignments as assistant conductor for Abbado in 2012 were with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, La Scala and Orchestra Mozart. He conducted the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Ferrara (April 2013) and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen with Maria Joao Pires as a soloist (June 2013). Ertüngealp conducted the inauguration event of the new opera theater "György Solti Chamber Opera Hall" within the newly renovated Music Academy of Budapest. Franz Liszt Music Academy repoened its doors to public in October 2013. Ertüngealp is highly prized by Maria Joao Pires and Martha Argerich with whom he collaborates regularly.

Besides conducting, Ertüngealp organized the following events: Slovak-Hungarian Peace Concert (2006, organizer and performer), "Europe Re-discovered" Festival celebrating the new EU member countries (2004, as an organizer and performer), Association des Artistes pour la Paix (ADAP) Central Europe (2002, as a founder). He is also a member of ADAP International based in Paris. Ertüngealp currently lives and works in Budapest, Hungary.