The international jury of the International Classical Music Awards has chosen Péter Zombola, university professor at the Faculty of Music of the University of Debrecen, as the Composer of the Year 2026. The award aims to support the highest level of musical achievement and creativity and to promote classical music.
At the center of Péter Zombola’s creative oeuvre are large-scale orchestral and vocal works. Among his most notable achievements is his oratorio trilogy, which comprises the Requiem, Passio, and the currently in-progress Kaddis, forming a complete artistic unit. His compositional style is characterized by a combination of minimalism and neo-Baroque thinking.
Péter Zombola said that receiving the Composer of the Year award resulted primarily from a combination of serendipity, luck, and sustained work.
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“By serendipity, I mean, for example, that if the local school system had been abolished a year earlier, I might not have ended up in a music-focused elementary school and would probably have pursued law or business. On a more professional level, the international popularity of my works and the increasing number of masterclasses I give in Europe and the USA played a role. I dare to hope that talent is also part of this mix,” he added.
The professor believes that teaching is just as challenging and responsible for him as creating new works.
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“Every day I reinvent myself, trying to provide professional and personal guidance to my students. Each year requires a different approach to connect with this generation, as the environment changes rapidly, making teaching both a huge challenge and responsibility. At the University of Debrecen, I also consider interfaculty collaboration very important, which is why every semester I offer a freely selectable film music course open to students from any faculty. Moreover, teaching composition and instrumental knowledge at both the Faculty of Music and the Institute of Popular Music is very close to my heart,” he explained.
He noted that the news of the award came from Rémy Franck, editor-in-chief of Luxembourg’s Pizzicato magazine and president of the International Classical Music Awards jury. At first, he could hardly believe he had been chosen and needed a few minutes to fully grasp it.
Péter Zombola will receive the award on March 18 in Bamberg, Germany, where the audience will hear two movements from his Passio, composed in 2015, performed by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra during a monumental award ceremony.
(unideb.hu)
