User:Sad Rist/Miklós Takács

Miklós Takács (born 13.09.1932 in Budapest and died on 13.02.2015 in Montreal ) was a Hungarian-Canadian professor, Quebecois choir conductor and orchestra conductor.

Biography
He studied composition, conducting, and musicology first in Budapest, at the Béla Bartók Conservatory (1953-1957) and the Franz Liszt Academy (1955-1959), and then in Paris, at Sorbonne University (1963-1964).

His teachers included Zoltán Kodály and György Ligeti, as well as Nadia Boulanger and Jacques Chailley. He was a professor at the Béla Bartók Conservatory (1964-1973) and founded the Budapest Baroque Chamber Orchestra and the Ensemble Takács.

In 1973, he settled in Quebec and became a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where he also conducted the choir. He also taught at McGill University (1974–1978) and the University of Ottawa (1975–1978).

In 1982, he revived the Montreal Philharmonic Society, a choral and orchestral association of which he was the artistic director. The ensemble notably performed the American premiere of the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony in February 1990, reconstructed from sketches by the British musicologist Barry Cooper—the world premiere had taken place in London in October 1988.

As a guest conductor, Takács has conducted the Budapest MAV Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Youth Civic Orchestra, the Debrecen Philharmonic Orchestra in Hungary, the Paris Chamber Orchestra, the San Remo Symphony, the Hermitage Symphony Orchestra in St. Petersburg, the Cairo Opera in Egypt, and the Kwangju State Symphony Orchestra in South Korea. He has also conducted ensembles at Carnegie Hall and the Salle Pleyel in Paris, and participated in the Pecs International Festival in Hungary and the Constantin Silvestri International Festival in Romania. As a choir conductor, he has led the Montreal Polyphonic Choir and the Guillaume-Couture Choir. He is also a staunch promoter of the music and method of Zoltán Kodály and conducts workshops in various sections of the Kodály Society in Canada.

His performances have been broadcast on the MRT radio station in Budapest, as well as on ORTF in Paris and the French and English networks of the CBC.

Takács received the Governor General's Award in 1992 and the Pro Cultura Hungarica Award from the Hungarian government.

He conducted the UQAM Choir until April 18, 2014.