We bid farewell to the composer Miklós Kocsár, a teacher of generations, and a respected figure in the musical public life, who passed at the age of 86.

His career began with chamber music, especially music for wind instruments.  He wrote songs, cantatas, masses, oratorios, orchestral pieces and solo instrumental pieces, while a considerable proportion of his œuvre consists of choral compositions. His works are sung worldwide; he was a celebrated composer for choirs, guest of honour at choir competitions. Many of his choral pieces were composed to verses by Hungarian poets; at different periods of his life, the works of different poets have occupied his attention. He composed his works for children's choir to verses by Sándor Weöres; in his pieces for female and mixed choirs, he has used verses by Gyula Juhász, László Nagy, Imre Csanádi and Sándor Kányádi, among others.  Characteristic features of his compositions are his quest for beauty of sound and his insistence on strict formal proportions.

Since 1972 he taught composition at the Béla Bartók Music Conservatoire. From 1974 until 1983 he was head of the folk music section of Hungarian Radio, then until 1995, he worked as deputy head of their General Department of Music. In recognition of his achievements as a composer, in 1973 and in 1980 he was awarded the Erkel Prize, in 1987 the title of Artist of Merit, in 1992 the Bartók-Pásztory Prize, in 2000 the Kossuth Prize, in 2014 the title of Artist of the Nation.