A tradition extending back more than 160 years was broken in 2009 when a New York-born conductor was appointed musical director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. What is more, it was from the orchestra's inner circle that the successor to Mengelberg, Toscanini, Bernstein and Maazel emerged – both Alan Gilbert's parents played in the NYPO. Currently in his second year at the helm of one of the world's leading and most travelled orchestras, the 44-year-old has a Harvard degree and also studi...ed at the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School of Music. In 1994, he won the Georg Solti prize entitling him to a week of private tuition from the master himself. In the same year, he also achieved first place in the International Competition for Musical Performance in Geneva, one of classical music's top prizes. In parallel to his prestigious position in New York, Gilbert is also honorary conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and principle guest conductor at the NDR Symphonic Orchestra in Hamburg. He has frequently conducted Beethoven's Eroica, but there are still occasions after a successful concert when he feels exalted to be in the presence of such wonderful music. Georgian-born violinist Lisa Batiashvili is among his favourite performers for her unwavering ability to reproduce melodies naturally and without force. This comes to the fore in Bartók's violin concerto, premièred in 1939 with Zoltán Székely as soloist and Willem Mengelberg as conductor. The New York Philharmonic arrives in Budapest well versed in the work of our composers – as part of the Hungarian Echoes series in March, the orchestra played four different programmes conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, including several Bartók pieces. Presented by: The Palace of Arts
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.