Zsigmond Szathmary

* 1939 in Hodmezovasarhely (Hungary); Zsigmond Szathmary studied composition with Ferenc Szabo and organ with Ferenc Gergely at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest; further studies followed in Vienna and in Frankfurt am Main with Helmut Walcha. In 1960 he won first prize at the organ competition in Budapest, in 1972 he received the Bach-Preis-Stipendium of the Freie Hansestadt Hamburg. As an organist he worked in Hamburg and as cathedral organist at Bremen Cathedral, where he founded the new music series “Forum Bremer Dom”. After teaching posts at the Musikhochschulen in Lübeck and Hannover he was professor of organ at the Musikhochschule Freiburg im Breisgau from 1978 to 2005. In 1987 the Hungarian Franz Liszt memorial committee awarded him the Franz-Liszt-Plakette, in 2008 he received the Artisjus-Preis; he is a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg and, since 2009, of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 2019 Cybele Records released the album Zsigmond Szathmary: Organ Works.