Biography - Kata Scheuring

Kata Scheuring was in her final year at one of Budapest’s top grammar schools, majoring in literature and French, when she decided to embark on a musical career. In 2001 she won 1^st prize at the Vilmos Bántai Flute Competition, and it was here that Zoltán Gyöngyössy heard her and spoke appreciatively of her performance. Six months later he enrolled her in his class at the Academy of Music. She later studied under several excellent teachers – Veronika Oross, Jánis Bálint, Zsolt Romos and Gergely Ittzés – getting to know and mastering a diverse range of approaches and styles of playing. While still a student at the Liszt Academy she performed successfully at several Hungarian and international competitions, in 2013 winning 3^rd prize in the V.S. Antonov International Competition of Woodwind Instrument Performers in Kiev, and 2^nd prize and the audience award in the Anton Eberst Competition in 2013, while in 2015 she came 2^nd in the Gheorghe Dima International Flute Competition, and in 2016 she took 4^th prize in the International Theobald Böhm Competition in Munich. “I find preparing for the competitions highly motivating, and enjoy the work that it involves both as a professional and as a personal challenge.”

She has also played flute as an intern musician at the Hungarian State Opera House since 2015. “Orchestral playing strengthens my ability to pay attention to others as a part of the shared creative process. But it also means a lot to me to be able to give my own interpretation of the music as a soloist, while I feel that playing chamber music offers the best of both these worlds.”

Her repertoire is especially rich in 20^th-centry works, and she is attracted to French music in particular. “The impressionist works give scope for such delicate playing and diversity of tone and mood, while other 20^th century genres are important to me because of the powerful, characterful pieces. At her concerts she often draws on the Baroque era, and the dynamism and depth of Bach’s music is also extremely close to her heart. Her musicality, her clean style of playing, was also influenced by her experiences in a Gregorian choir of which she was a member for many years. “The purity and harmony that I experienced through the choral singing influenced not only my musicality, but my personality as well.”

Kata has performed in many European countries both as a soloist and as a participant in such international orchestral projects as the tours of the EUYO or EUphony orchestras. As a result, audiences in Austria, Italy, France, Poland, Germany and Sweden, among other countries, have had the opportunity to hear her playing. At the Finnish Sibelius Academy, as a part of the Erasmus programme, she studied for six months under Petri Alanki, and also gave an independent solo concert in Helsinki.

One defining experience for her was performing Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s flute concerto, with an orchestra, at her diploma concert in the Grand Hall of the Academy of Music. In December 2016, at the same venue, she took the stage at the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy as soloist for the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy, to perform Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G major. “During our work together, Gábor stressed the importance of the joy of playing, and concentrated on giving voice to the various operatic elements and characters. His positive attitude and energy left a deep impression on me.” Of all the flute concertos, she regards Ibert’s flute concerto as her dream piece, due to its exceptional energies and technical challenges. Stepping outside the constraints of classic concert hall playing, Kata Scheuring also popularises her instrument at children’s concerts, and was one of the leading players in the Academy’s series of concerts for schoolchildren. Whether in the form of a solo evening, a chamber or orchestral concert, she is always actively seeking new challenges and striving to show her versatility, and the many characters and tones inherent in the music, through as many genres as possible.

- 2018 Fischer Annie Scholarship

- Since September, principal flautist at the Hungarian State Opera House

- Solo flautist of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) in 2017 and 2018

- Solo flautist in Reinecke’s Flute Concerto in Sibiu and Satu Mare ( 2017, 2018)

- Solo flautist in Vivaldi’s Flute Concerto alongside the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (2018)