Born on 21 June 1947 in Budapest.

He studied piano and jazz piano at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest under Kornél Zempléni, Ferenc Rados and János Gonda, and then studied choir conducting at the Liszt Academy of Music under Zoltán Vásárhelyi and jazz composition under Kálmán Oláh. He also obtained a DLA (Doctor of Liberal Arts) degree from the same institution in 2015.

He has been a well-known figure in Hungarian popular music since the late 60s. He performed as a keyboard player in the famous Ex Antiqua ensemble of Tamás Hacki, the whistle virtuoso, in many countries of the world, and he orchestrated the repertoire played by the ensemble. In the 1970s and 80s, he also wrote several pop songs that are still popular today (Most kéne abbahagyni, Sziklaöklű Joe, Bús szívből énekelni, Könnyű, mint az 1x1, Várj, Elsöpri a szél, etc.), and he also scored major successes with his film scores. The theme song of the animated film Vuk, based on István Fekete’s youth novel, is still well known and sung by Hungarian children. (The story takes place in a forest and the protagonist is a little fox called Vuk.)

Péter Wolf’s arrangements of classical music (Ferenc Liszt’s 2nd and 15th Hungarian Rhapsodies for chamber orchestra) are regularly performed at concerts of the Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orchestra and can be heard on their recordings, but he also arranged the works that are featured on Isaac Stern’s CD “Kreisler”.

In the early 2000s, he gradually moved away from light music and towards classical symphonic, chamber and solo works (2 piano concertos, a violin concerto, a clarinet concerto, a bassoon concerto, a Mass, solo works for piano, flute, trombone, and other instruments.)

His works in our catalogue

Ave Maria (2003) – voice and guitar – voice and piano – voice, mixed choir and piano

Wolf-temperiertes Klavier – 24 piano pieces (2018)

Adagio from Wolf-temperiertes Klavier (2021) – for flute (or violin) and piano

Five movements from Wolf-temperiertes Klavier – for chamber orchestra

Jazz preludes (Wolf-temperiertes Klavier 2) – 24 piano pieces (2022)

Sonata (2022) – for piano

Awards

Szabolcs Fényes Prize (1995); Pro Urbe Szentendre (2001); Erkel Prize (2005); Artisjus Lifetime Achievement Award (2018)