Imre Kollár was born in Szombathely, Hungary in 1969. At the age of 7 he took up the violin and attended the “Kodaly Zoltan Music School” in his home town. After having graduated from highschool he attended the Hungarian “Franz Liszt Academy” in Budapest where, in 1992, he received his diploma (summa cum laude). While studying for his conducting degree, Kollár did an additional major in “Voice and Performance in Singing”.

Competition prizes and grants

1989 1st place in the category of “Special Prize of the Audience at the Sixth International Conducting Competition”, held by the Hungarian radio and television.
1993 Finalist of the “Toscanini Conducting Competion”, Parma, Italy.
1994 1st place at the “Treviso International Conducting Competition”, the prize being a two-month concert tour of Italy.
1997: Finalist of the “Bonn International Conducting Competition”, a competition where no 1st prize was awarded.
Orchestras
1991-2: Assistant conductor at the Hungarian State Opera.
1992-4: Assistant to maestro Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and the Hungarian State Orchestra. At the same time Kollár was principal conductor of the Dohnányi Symphony Youth Orchestra, the leading Youth Orchestra in Hungary.
1997: As a consequence of being a finalist in the “Bonn International Conducting Competition”, he was then invited to the Niederrheinische Symphoniker and, together with Vadim Repin, to the Orchester der Beethovenhalle.

Since 1994: General Music Director of the Debrecen Philharmonic Orchestra.
Associate conductor at the Hungarian State Opera and the Debrecen Opera House.
Since 1995: He annually holds seminars in Japan on the musical life and works of Bartók and Kodály.
Other orchestras conducted by him include: Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Weiner Kammerorchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Johnstown Philharmonic Orchestra, Hampshire Symphonietta, Cairo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Filharmonia Veneta, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Firenze, Mexico State Orchestra. Kollár has also performed with numerous outstanding soloists e.g. Dezsö Ránki, Zoltán Kocsis, Andrea Rost and Dimitri Sgouros.

Concert tours

Since 1994: He has been invited to perform in Italy, Austria, Great Britain, Spain, Egypt, Japan, Mexico, Australia, USA and Switzerland.

Radio and TV recordings

1995: His 1st CD recording included a Mozart Smphony and a Piano Concerto with the world-famous Hungarian Pianist Gergely Bogányi. Since then, a further 3 CDs have been recorded including works from Beethoven, Bruckner and the Strauss family.