Gabor Palotas
Gabor Palotas was born in
1985 in Kiskunfelegyhaza, Hungary. He started his percussion studies at the age
of seven. In 2009 he recieved his diploma with a Masters degree with honours as a
student of Istvan Szabo from the University of Debrecen. During his university-years he
was a member of Sonus Percussion Ensemble which has toured Japan,
Slovakia, Poland as well as performed many concerts throughout Hungary. Between 1995-2008, he
served as percussionist of the Symphony Band of Kiskunfelegyhaza. This orchestra has won many prizes, such as in
Jastzerbie Zdroj (I.Prize, Poland, 1997), Neerpelt (I.Prize, Belgium, 1999),
Differdange (I.Prize, Luxembourg, 2006) among others. The Symphony Band has recorded 5 CDs to which Gabor has
contributed.
Gabor is currently working as a teacher at the Kodaly School in Kecskemet, Hungary.
He has also been a member of Symphony Orchestra of Kecskemet since 2008. One of Gabors main goals in performing is to expose percussion instruments to as wide of an audience as possible. Gabor has worked closely with serveral Hungarian composers and many of them have dedicated percussion solo and chamber works to him.
Gabor's prizes include:
National Solo and
Duo Competition for Percussion Instruments (1998, Győr, Hungary)
Special
Prize
National
Competition for Percussion Instruments (2003, Miskolc, Hungary)
Third Prize
28th National
College Meeting and Competition for Percussion Instruments
(2005, Debrecen,
Hungary)
First
Prize
29th National
College Meeting and Competition for
Percussion Instruments
(2006, Debrecen,
Hungary)
Third
Prize
30th National and
1st International Percussion Meeting and Competition
(2007, Debrecen,
Hungary)
First
Prize and Special Prize of University of Debrecen
Other prizes:
Tibor Falu Jr.
Foundation-Prize (2006)
Hungarian
Rebuplic’s "Republican Scholarship” (2008/2009)
"In Memoriam Gyorgy
Gulyas” – Janos Jozsa – Prize (2009)
Courses and
Master classes:
Imai Tadako (2002),
Gergely Nagy (2004), Frank Epstein (2004), Leonhard Schmidinger (2005), Keiko
Abe (2007, 2008), Martin Oprsal (2007), Frederic Macarez (2008), Anders Loguin
(2008), Ludwig Albert (2008), Ruud Wiener (2008), Angel Omar Frette (2008)
