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As mentioned, there is more to Béla than being one of the Three Tenors with André Rieu, since 2005. Below his Biography.
Born in Baden near Vienna, he began his study of singing in 1989 at the Academy of Music in Belgrade and continued his study further at the University of Music in Cologne, where he received his arts diploma in 1994.
Master courses then followed, with Franco Corelli in Milano and with Gianni Raimondi and Nicolai Gedda in Italy.
In 1991 he was engaged by Columbia Artists for a tour trough America in which he sang solo-tenor parts from Carl Orff's Catulli Carmina and Ariel Ramirez' Misa Criolla. In the USA and Canada he had successful appearances in numerous cities (among these New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc.).
At the State Opera House in Belgrade he characterized the figure of Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme After being awarded the Gold Medal at the International Singing Competition in Santa Margherita Ligure in Italy he started drawing attention for the first time and his singing was as equally convincing through the many radio and television productions made as it was by the CD recordings of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Vivaldi's Magnificat and the world premiere of Marianna Martinez' In Exitu Israel and Dixit Dominus at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall.
In 1994 he made his debut in Verdi's Requiem at the Bonner Beethoven Hall with the Philharmonica Hungarica.
One year later he sang this commanding tenor part at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and at the Teatro Municipal in Sao Paolo, before then he moved on to the Salzburger Concert Hall to take up the principle role in Hector Berlioz’ Faust's Damnation.
Then he gave a beneficiary concert at the St.Stephan Basilika in Budapest, sang interpretations of tenor arias from J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio in several Jugoslavian cathedrals and sang famous opera arias and songs in Tokio and Sapporo.
Then, as from May 1998, the German National Theatre in Weimar engaged him for two-years as a solist for the European cultural event, "Weimar - Cultural City of Europe, 1999".
During this event he sang in ten different opera productions which involved more than one hundred stage appearances. Here he interpreted the title-parts in pieces such as Gounod's Faust, and in Belioz' Faust's Damnation, Don Ottavio (Mozart Don Giovanni), and Pinkerton (Puccini Madame Butterfly), sang one of the major roles for the European first performance of the opera Ars Musica (”Musik für die Lebenden”) by Gia Kancheli, and characterized a whole variety of roles, like Cassio in Verdi's Othello, The Singer in R. Strauss' Rosenkavalier, and the Marquis von Chateauneuf in Lortzing's Zar und Zimmermann.
A moment of very special significance for Béla Mavrák´s singing career was a concert appearance given with Lord Yehudi Menuhin.
1999 he sang under his direction at a beneficiary concert in support of the German “Yehudi Menuhin Foundation”.
During the concert season 2000 until 2003 he gave guest performances at various German theatres as Prince Sou-Chong in Lehár's The Land of Smile. In August 2001 he made his debut in Verdi's Rigoletto (Duke of Mantua) in Liguria, Italy.
In January 2002 he sang the role of Don Ottavio in Mozart´s Don Giovanni in Bergamo, Italy. In February he gave concerts on board the “MS Deutschland” cruising around South Africa.
In the season 2002/2003 he made his debut in J. Strauss´ Der Zigeunerbaron (Sandor Barinkay) in Switzerland, and played the role of The Singer in R. Strauss´ Rosenkavalier at the City Theatre of Koblenz.
He played Mozart´s Requiem together with the orchestra of the Mozarteum of Salzburg and the Cathedral Choir of Salzburg at the international opera festival in Miskolc/Hungary in June 2003.
In November 2003 he made his debut with Paul McCartney´s Liverpool Oratorio (Shanty) at the Berlin Concert Hall (Gendarmenmarkt).
Furthermore he made his debut in January 2004 with the interpretation of The Hymn of Praise by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and in the Oratorio of Pictures from the Bible by Fanny Hensel at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall.
In spring 2004 he took over the part of Tamino in Mozart´s “Zauberflöte” and he went on tour through Germany with this programme and did over 20 performance.
He performed in TV-productions (WDR, ZDF) followed by concerts with André Rieu and a sequence of New-Year-Concerts with the North-West-German Philharmonic Orchestra.
In spring 2005 he made his début in Verdi´s La Traviata (Alfredo) the Budapest Spring Festival. In autumn 2005 he took his part in the tour through the Netherlands and Belgium, presenting Die Csárdásfürstin (Edwin) by Emmerich Kálmán.
He attended the New Years Eve Gala at Hamburg Musikhalle.
At the same time he participated in André Rieu’s newest CD recording, he participates as guest tenor in André Rieu’s world tour through Europe, Asia and America at more than 110 concerts.
In addition there are 120 more concerts until summer 2007.
Protracted till 2011.
07.04.2008
On his birthday, the 7th of April, the city of Maastricht honoured Béla Mavrák with its highest award.
Who is Béla Mavrák?
We know him as one of the Three Tenors, but there is more. In this video of November 2008, broadcast by the program WestArt of the German WDR, we meet him at his home in Cologne, Germany. He shows us the Music Academy where it all began. He also shows us his rehearsal room... More on Béla can be found on his website: www.bela-mavrak.de. Many thanks to Kathi (Caramia German web host) and John, for assisting us with the translation and special thanks to Béla Mavrák, for giving us permission to show the video.
At home with Béla Mavrák
Running time: Minutes
