Short Biography
Ferenc László was born on May 8, 1937, in Cluj, Romania. His father, Dezső László,
was a Calvinist theologian and pastor. His mother, Éva Terézia Vidovszky, was an
organist and a Sunday school teacher. He was married to cellist Ilse L. Herbert and had three children (Eva, Peter and Mark).
Education
After elementary school (1943-1951), he attended the Music Lyceum (Liceul de Muzică) in his hometown (1951-1954), where he studied flute, and earned - along with his Baccalaureate - the qualification of "Technician" (Tehnician). Between 1954 and 1959, he was a student (Flute major) at the Cluj Conservatory (Conservatorul Gheorghe Dima, today Academia de Muzică Gheorghe Dima). In 1958, while still a student in Cluj, he was awarded a George Enescu Scholarship for Merit (Bursa de Merit George Enescu). In 1990-1991, he earned a grant from the Hungarian Soros Foundation (Soros Alapítvány) to conduct research in the Bartók Archives (MTA ZTI Bartók Archívum), in Budapest, Hungary. In 2001, he was awarded a PhD (Magna cum Laude) in Musicology by the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music for his doctoral thesis on The Evolution of Transylvanian Music in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries (Evoluția muzicii transilvănene în secolele XVIII și XIX).
Professional Life and Positions Held
After graduating from the Cluj Conservatory in 1959, Ferenc László performed as a flutist with the Sibiu State Philharmonic Orchestra until 1965. In 1966, he returned to Cluj to become an instructor of chamber music at the Cluj Music Lyceum, his alma mater, where he taught until 1970. After several attempts to find employment in higher education (these were invariably thwarted by the political regime of the time), he was eventually offered a teaching position with the Bucharest Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory (today Universitatea Națională de Muzică București), where he taught chamber music until 1991. The last position he held there was that of Head of Department of Chamber Music.
The regime change of 1989-1990 allowed him to return to Cluj. Between 1991 and 2007, he taught chamber music at the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music (Academia de Muzică Gheorghe Dima, AMGD), where he became full Professor, and were he was, between 2000 and 2007, also Chair of the Chamber Music Department. In 1994, he introduced to the curriculum a course on Organology (Organologie), which was highly popular among students, and which is since being offered by László's successors at AMGD. From 2002 until his passing, Ferenc László supervised numerous students working towards a PhD in Musicology.
He advised (and was a member of), numerous music festival organizing committees and music competition juries. He served, among others, as Artistic Director of the Miercurea Ciuc Early Music Festival (Csíkszeredai Régizene Fesztivál, Festivalul de Muzică Veche Miercurea Ciuc) and as Director of the Cluj Mozart Festival.
As a performing artist (between 1958 and 1971), Ferenc László toured Romania and several countries of the Eastern Bloc, including Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, and the Soviet Union. He was a member of the Collegium Musicum Academicum ensemble, in which he played along with his wife, Ilse L. Herbert.
He was editor of the music section of A Hét (1970–73), regular contributor to the program in Hungarian language of the Romanian Radio and Television Corporation (until its closing in 1985). He played a major role in the development of a Hungarian program with Electrecord, the Romanian state record company.
In December 1989, Ferenc László was co-founder, and, later, President of the Hungarian Music Society of Romania (Romániai Magyar Zene Társaság). In the 1990s, he founded and co-founded several NGOs and associations, including the Romanian branch of Jeunesses Musicales (Junimea Muzicală), the Romanian Mozart Society (Societatea Română Mozart), and Kolozsvár Társaság (Cluj Society). He served as Vice President of the Romanian section of the Paneuropa Union, and was a Member of the Board of the Cluj branch of the Foundation for an Open Society (Fundația pentru o societate deschisă - Cluj).
Research and writing
László’s research covers Romanian and universal musical themes. His interests ranged from various Mozart-related issues through the relationship between musical culture and folk music culture to Beethoven’s traces in Cluj. His writings on music were published in numerous journals and newspapers, including Korunk, Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde, Musik und Kirche, Utunk, Studii de Muzicologie, Művelődés, Brassói Lapok, Secolul 20, Muzica, A Hét, Karpatenrundschau, Muzsika, etc. He was an associate of the Budapest-based Magyar Zene.
He has written several books (listed below). He was a contributor to volumes like A romániai magyar nemzetiség (Hungarian Ethnicity in Romania), in which he presented Hungarian musical life in Romania, and Zenetudományi Irások (Writings in Musicology), published by Kriterion (1980, 1983), to which he contributed works on the musical aspects of the folklore and local historical research conducted by him.
Most prominent among his publications are his works on Béla Bartók. He was an editor of several volumes on Bartók in Hungarian, including 99 Bartók-levél (99 Bartók Letters, 1970), Bartók-könyv 1970-1971 (Bartók Book 1970-1971), Bartók-dolgozatok (Bartók-Studies, 1974, 1981), and also in Romanian, including Béla Bartók şi muzica românească (Béla Bartók and Romanian Music, 1976), and two volumes of selected Bartók letters (1976–77).
László was also editor of a commemorative Kodály-volume written by Transylvanian authors titled Utunk Kodályhoz (Our Road to Kodály, 1984), in which he published a study on the Romanian folksong-adaptations of the celebrated Hungarian composer.
Overall, he published more than 2500 texts, including hundreds of pieces on topics not related to musicology. Many of them focus on Transylvania, and especially, on the historical and cultural relations among Romanians, Hungarians and Transylvanian Saxons, a subject that fascinated him throughout his life.
Ferenc László's writings are published in (or translated into) many languages, including Hungarian, Romanian, German, English, French, Japanese, and Czech.
He signed his publications as László Ferenc, Francisc László, Ferenc László, and László V. Ferenc. He also used the pseudonym Vigh Frigyes.
Book publications
Bartók-könyv 1970-1971. București: Kriterion, 1971. (editor and co-author)
Bartók-dolgozatok. București: Kriterion, 1971. (editor and co-author)
99 Bartók-levél. București: Kriterion, 1974. (editor, foreword)
Zenei ügyelet. Publicisztikai írások. București: Kriterion, 1976.
Béla Bartók și muzica românească. București: Editura Muzicală, 1976. (editor and co-author)
Béla Bartók: Scrisori. Vol. I. București: Kriterion, 1976. (editor, notes)
Béla Bartók: Scrisori. Vol. II. București: Kriterion, 1977. (editor, notes)
Bartók Béla. Tanulmányok és tanúságok. București: Kriterion, 1980.
Bartók-dolgozatok 1981. București: Kriterion, 1982. (editor and co-author)
Utunk Kodályhoz. București: Kriterion, 1984. (editor and co-author)
A százegyedik év. Bartókról, Enescuról, Kodályról. București: Kriterion, 1984.
Bartók Béla: Studii, comunicări, eseuri. București: Kriterion, 1985. (editor and co-author)
Zenén innen, zenén túl. Publicisztikai írások. București: Kriterion, 1987.
Klavír és koboz. Tények, értelmezések és föltevések Liszt Ferenc 1846-47-es hangversenyútjával kapcsolatban. București: Kriterion, 1989.
Gen, specie și formă în muzica de flaut a lui J.S. Bach. București: Conservatorul "Ciprian Porumbescu", 1989.
Béla Bartók: Rondo în do major (1927). Prelucrare pentru cvintet de suflători (1986). București: Conservatorul "Ciprian Porumbescu", 1989.
Béla Bartók și lumea noastră. Așa cum a fost. Cluj: Editura Dacia, 1995.
A szfinx válaszol. 35 beszélgetés Enescuval. București: Kriterion, 1995.
Béla Bartók și muzica populară a românilor din Banat și Transilvania. Cluj: Eikon, 2003.
Bartók markában. Tanulmányok és cikkek (1981-2006). Cluj: Polis, 2006.
Gen, specie și formă în muzica de flaut a lui J.S. Bach (2nd edition). Cluj: Arpeggione, 2006.
Constantin Brăiloiu, partizan al etnomuzicologiei fără frontiere. Cluj: Eikon, 2006.
Memberships & Social Engagement (selection)
1973- Uniunea Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România (member)
1981- Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Salzburg (member)
1986-1996 Romániai Magyar Zenetársaság (founding member)
1990- Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség (member)
1990-1992 Junimea Muzicală din România (founding president)
1990-1994 Uniunea Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România (member)
1991-1993 Cursurile Internaționale de Vară de la Cluj (founding director)
1991-1996 Romániai Magyar Zenetársaság (president)
1991-2001 Societatea Română Mozart (initiator and founding president)
1992- Fundația Sigismund Toduță, Cluj (initiator and founding member)
1992- Asociația Gheorghe Dima, Cluj (initiator and founding member)
1993- Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft, Wien (member)
1993- Magyar Zenetudományi és Zenekritikai Társaság, Budapest (founding member)
1994- Johann-Michael-Haydn-Gesellschaft, Salzburg (member)
1994-1996 Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség (member of the Coordinating Committee /Szövetségi Egyeztető Tanács/)
1994-2007 Societatea Filarmonică Transilvania, Cluj (founding president)
1995-2000 Bolyai Társaság, Cluj (member and member of Leadership Committee /Vezető tanács/)
1995-1999 Fundația Soros pentru o societate deschisă, Cluj (member of the board)
1996- The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & and Commerce
Founded in 1754, London (fellow /FRSA/)
1997- Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für die Musikgeschichte in Mittel- und Osteuropa an der Technischen Universitaet Chemnitz (after 2000: Universitaet Leipzig. Initiator and founding member)
1998 Nemzetközi Kodály Társaság, Kecskemét (member)
19?? Erdélyi Múzeum Egyesület, Cluj (member)
Awards & Honors
1968 Memorial plaque, Mezhdunarodnen Festival Kamera Muzika Plovdiv, Bulgaria
1981 Premiul Ciprian Porumbescu, Academia Republicii Socialiste România (awarded for his book titled Bartók Béla.Tanulmányok és tanúságok)
1981 Premiul I., Festivalul Cîntarea României, secția muzicologie (awarded for his book titled Bartók Béla. Tanulmányok és tanúságok)
1981 Magyar Népköztársaság Művelődési Minisztériuma Bartók Béla Centenáriumi Emlékérme
1982 Magyar Népköztársaság Művelődési Minisztériuma Kodály Zoltán Centenáriumi Emlékérme
1982 Premiu, Colegiul Criticilor Muzicali
1983 Premiu, Uniunea Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România
1992 Premiu, Fundația Jora
1993 [In memoriam Béla Bartók] Commemorative plaque, Consiliul Local Sînnicolau-Mare
1994 Aniversări Culturale Clujene 1919-1994, Commemorative plaque
1995 Premiu, Uniunea Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România (awarded for his book titled Béla Bartók și lumea noastră)
1995 In memoriam [Béla Bartók]. Commemorative plaque, Consiliul Local Sînnicolau-Mare
1997 Honorary President of Asociația Transilvania-Shimane
1998 Kriterion-koszorú, Kriterion Alapítvány
2001 Honorary President of Societatea Română Mozart
2002 Österreichisches Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst
2002 Diplomă de Excelență. Asociația Română a Iubitorilor Valsului Johann Strauss
2003 Szabolcsi Bence-díj, Magyar Kulturális Örökség Minisztériuma
2003 Premiu, Uniunea Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România (awarded for his book titled Béla Bartók și muzica populară a românilor din Banat și Transilvania)
2004 Nagy István-díj, Erdélyi Magyar Közművelődési Egyesület
2005 Diplomă de excelență, Universitatea de Arte "George Enescu", Iași
2006 A Magyar Alkotók Országos Egyesületének Nagydíja
2007 Honorary President of Societatea Filarmonică Transilvania
2007 Diplomă de merit, Consiliul Județean Cluj
2008 A Magyar Köztársasági Érdemrend Lovagkeresztje
Ferenc László passed away on March 17, 2010, in Cluj, Romania. He was laid to rest in the Central Cemetery (Cimitirul Central, also known as Házsongárd), in Cluj.
