Zoltán Jeney, composer, professor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, founder of the former Budapest New Music Studio, and member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts, who died on 17 October 2019, would have turned 80 on 4 March.

His works have been in our catalogue since 1968. His artistic legacy has been preserved since his death with the publication of significant works in manuscript, such as Pavane, Self-Quotations and Agony - 8 Songs to Poems by György Petri. Two pieces for cimbalom (Farewell to György Ligeti; Was hast du verbrochen?) and Heraclitean Fragments for chamber ensemble are to be released this year.

Together with his students, his friends and the institutions of Hungarian cultural life we commemorate Zoltán Jeney’s extraordinary person and his art in several ways: 

On 4 March, with the Liszt Academy of Music, the Széchenyi Academy of Arts and Letters and the Association of Hungarian Composers, we will lay wreaths at his gravesite in Farkasréti Cemetery, designed by György Jovánovics.

On 5 March, a concert entitled In memoriam Zoltán Jeney will feature works by Jeney's former students performed by the composers in the concert hall of the FUGA Architecture Centre. 

On 8 March, Éva M Tóth's documentary film ’Undisturbed - Hommage à UZS’, about the history of the New Music Studio in Budapest, will be premiered at the Budapest Music Center.

On 9 May, in the Ceremonial Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tünde Szitha will give a lecture on Zoltán Jeney's oeuvre at the invitation of the Széchenyi Academy of Arts and Letters.